■.iiiiiiii«)wjimi«'  »mww»i<— »»M>«ujju)irt.- 


UNIVEKSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


FPOM   THK    I.IBWAPN    (M- 

BENJAMIN   PARKE  AVERY. 


(11  FT  UF  MRS.   AVERY. 

Aiieusi,  t8g6. 


/laessioiis  M"  (j)J  (d  V/         Class  No. 


v^- 


WONDERS  OF  SCULPTURE. 


WONDERS 


OF 


SCULPTURE. 


BY 

LOUIS    VIARDOT 


ILLUSTRATED  WITH  SIXTY-TWO  ENGRAVINGS. 


NEW  YORK: 
SCRIBNER,   ARMSTRONG,  AND   COMPANY, 

SUCCESSORS   TO 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER   AND   COMPANY. 
1873. 


(.30f 


n  I  V  K  p.  S  1  I>  E  ,     C  A  M  11  R  I  T>  0  E  : 
rRlMl-.n    IIV    II.    0.    HOUGHTON    ANP   COMVANA 


NOTE. 


The  present  volume  is  a  translation  of  "  Les  Mer- 
VEiLLES  DE  LA  SCULPTURE,"  by  M.  ViARDOT,  published 
last  year  by  Messrs.  Hachette  and  Company. 

The  author  is  so  well  known  as  an  art  critic,  that  it  is 
unneccssar}-  to  recommend  his  work;  but  on  this  account 
we  regret  the  more  the  incompleteness  and  injustice  of 
his  chapter  on  Sculpture  in  England.  In  mourning  over 
our  short-comings,  and  ridiculing  our  public  monuments, 
he  has  omitted  to  mention  the  works  of  Gibson,  Bailev, 
Mac-Dowell,  Foley,  Bell,  Marshall,  Woolner,  and  other 
equally  eminent  sculptors. 

The  rest  of  the  work,  however,  is  full  of  interest.  The 
antique  schools,  especially  the  Greek,  are  ably  and  fully 
reviewed,  and  the  reader  is  introduced  to  all  the  master- 
pieces of  modern  sculpture  in  continental  galleries. 

In  accordance  with  the  usage  of  modern  scholars,  the 
original  Greek  names  of  the  divinities,  as  Zeus,  Poseidon, 
Pallas,  have    been    in   most   cases    substituted   for    their 


vi  NOTE. 

Latin  synonyms  of  Jupiter,  Neptune,  and  Minerva;  and, 
in  the  case  of  a  well-known  Venus,  the  proper  name, 
Melos,  of  the  island  in  which  the  statue  was  discovered, 
has  been  preferred  to  the  generally  used  Anglo-French 
corruption,  Milo. 

With  these  exceptions,  the  translator  has  endeavoured 
to  give  a  faithful  reproduction  of  M.  Viardot's  work,  and 
trusts  that  it  may  give  pleasure  and  instruction  to  Enghsh 
readers. 

N.  d'Anvers. 


CONTENTS. 


BOOK  I. 
ANCIENT  SCULPTURE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

E(;yptian  sculpture. 


PAGK 


Stitue  of  Ra-em-Ke,  of  Sepa,  of  Nesa — Meaning  of  Egj-ptian 
terms — The  archaic  style — The  second  artistic  epoch — The 
renaissance  of  art  in  Egypt— Egyptian  statues  in  the  Louvre, 
in  the   British  Museum— The  Rosetta  Stone      ...  5 

CHAPTER  n. 

ASSYRIAN    SCULPTURE. 

Influence  of  Assyrian  art  on  the  Greeks,  Etruscans,  and 
Hebrews — Palace  of  Khorsabad — Discoveries  at  Koyunjik, 
Karamles,  Kalab-Shergat — Colossal  Bulls  in  the  Louvre — 
Assyrian  bas-reliefs  in  the  British  Museum — Obelisk  of 
Kalab-Shergat 42 

CHAPTER  HI. 

KTKUSCAN    SCULPIUKE. 

Statucb  in  the  Uffizi  (iallcry  :  the  Idolino,  the  Chima-ra,  and 
the  Orator — The  Lydian  Tomb — Etruscan  Vases  (so-called) 
— Rhytons — Amphorse — Vetri  Antichi      .  ,  .  .       (j- 


Tiii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

GRECIAN    SCULPTURE. 

PAC;8 

Influence  of  mythology  on  Grecian  art — Dsedalus — Glaucus — 
Dipoenusand  Scyllis— Dameas— Ageladas— .-Eginetan  marbles 
at  Munich — Praxiteles — Phidias — Scopas — Grecian  Sculp- 
tures in  the  Louvre  :  the  Venus  of  Milo,  Diana  Huntress, 
Achilles,  the  Dying  Gladiator — at  Florence  :  Niobe  and 
her  Children,  the  Venus  of  Medici,  the  Apollino,  the  Faun, 
the  Wrestlers,  the  Arrotino — at  Rome  :  the  Apollo  Bel- 
vedere, the  Laocoon,  the  Torso  Belvedere — at  Naples : 
the  Flora,  the  Hercules,  and  the  Toro  Farnese — in  the 
British  Museum  :  the  Marbles  of  Xanthus,  the  Elgin 
Marbles,   Sculptures  from  the  Parthenon  ...        70 

CHAPTER  V. 

ROMAN    SCULI'TURE. 

Influence  of  Greece  on  Roman  art— Statues  of  Emperors  and 
Empresses :  of  Ciesar  Agrippina,  Augustus,  &c.  ;  of  Anti- 
nous,  Balbus,  and  others — Busts  of  Agrippa,  Nero,  Domitian, 
Caracalla,  &c — Bas-reliefs  :  Suovetaurilia,  a  Conclamatio, 
the  Pra;torian  Soldiers    .  .  .  .  .  .  .      iSl 


CONTENTS.  \x 


BOOK  II. 
MODERN  SCULPTURE. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ITALIAN    SCULPTURE. 

PAGB 

Nicolas  of  Pisa — Ghiberti — Delia  Robbia — Sansovino — Ver- 
rochio — Agratus — Michael  Angelo  :  his  character  and  mode 
of  working  ;  his  sculptures  :  Bacchus,  the  Tombs  of  the 
Medici,  the  Madonna  della  Pieta,  Moses,  the  Captives, 
Brutus,  &c — Cellini  :  his  group  of  Perseus  and  Andromeda, 
the  Nymph  of  Fontainebleau,  &c — Ammanato — Bernini — 
Algardi — Canova  :  his  Tomb  of  Maria  Christina,  his  groups 
of  Perseus  with  the  Medusa's  head,  and  Theseus  with  the 
Minotaur      .........     201 

CHAPTER  II. 

SPANISH  sci;l?ture. 

Vigarni — Berruguete — Becerra — Tombs  of  Isabella  of  Arragon 
and  Charles  V.,  of  Juana  la  Loca  and  Philip  the  Handsome 
— Cano — Gines      ........     238 

CHAPTER  III. 

GERMAN   SCULPTURE. 

Erwin  of  Baden — Schuffer — Vischer — Dannecker  :  his  group 
of  Ariadne  on  the  Panther — Ranch — Kiss  :  his  Amazon  on 
horseback — Rietschel— Thorwaldsen         ....     249 

h 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER  IV. 

FLEMISH   SCULPTURE. 


PAGE 


Tombs  of  Charles  tlie  Bold  and  Mary  of  Burgundy,  at  Bruges 
— Sluter— Claux  de  Vousonne — Jacques  de  Baerz—  Her- 
mann Glosencamp  :  his  chimney-piece  of  sculptured  wood  .      264 

CHAPTER  V. 

ENGLISH    SCULPTURE. 

Sir  R.  Westmacott— Statues  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington — the 
Tombs  in  Westminster  Abbey — Sheemakers — Roubiliac — 
Chantry  -Baron  Marochetti    .  .  .  .  .  .270 

CHAPTER  VI. 

FRENCH    SCULPTURE. 

Its  development  in  the  Gothic  ages— Michault  Colomb— Juste 
— Texier — Demigiano — ^John  of  Bologna — Jean  Goujon — 
Cousm  —  Pilon  —  Trebatti  —  Pierre  Jacques  —  Puget  :  his 
groups  of  Milo  of  Crotona,  Hercules  in  repose,  &c — 
Coysevox — Girardon — The  Coustous — Bouchardon — Hou- 
don — Sculptures  by  living  artists  in  the  Luxembourg.  .      283 

AMERICAN   SCULPTURE. 

Absence  of  interest  in  the  early  days— Mrs.  Patience  Wright 
— Houdon — Foreign  Sculptors — John  Frazee,  the  first 
Sculptor  of  American  birth — Indifference  of  prominent 
Americans  to  the  Art — Horatio  Greenough — His  Statue  of 
Washington — Greenough  and  Fenimore  Cooper — Hiram 
Powers — The  Greek  Slave — Thomas  Crawford — His  (.)r- 
pheus — His  work  at  Washington  -  H.  K.  Brown — His 
Washington,  Scott,  and  Greene — Henry  Dexter— Ceme- 
tery monuments — Erastus  D.  Palmer — His  popular  works 
— William  Wetmore  Story  — His  literary  and  artistic  pow- 
ers— Thomas  Ball — John  Quincy  Adams  Ward  -  Indian 
Hunter  and  Shakespeare — Launt  Thompson — John  Rogers 
— Cleveger,  Bartholomew,  and  Akers — Womeii  as  Sculp- 
tors  336 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


I. 

2. 

3- 

4- 

5- 
6. 

7- 
8. 

9- 

lO. 

II. 

12. 

13- 

14. 

15- 
16. 

17- 

18. 

19. 
20. 

21. 

22. 

23- 

24. 

25- 

26. 

27- 

28. 
29. 
30- 


Pre-Historic  Remains . 

Ditto         ditto    .... 

Ra-em-Ke  .... 

Schafra       ..... 

Colossal  Bas-relief,  Nineveh,  in  the  Louvre 

The  Infant  Apollo  with  a  Duck     . 

The  Venus  of  Milo,  in  the  Louvre 

Achilles,  in  the  Louvre 

Pallas  of  Velletri,  in  the  Louvre     . 

Bacchus,  in  the  Louvre 

Mercury,  in  the  Louvre 

The  Tiber,  in  the  Louvre 

The  Nile,  in  the  Vatican 

Faun  with  a  Child,  in  the  Louvre. 

The  Pretended  Germanicus,  in  the  Louvre 

A  Discobolus,  in  the  Louvre 

The  Faun  of  Praxiteles — at  Rome 

Niobe — at  Florence 

The  Venus  of  Medici — at  Florence 

Apollino— at  Florence 

The  Musical  Faun — at  Florence    . 

The  Wrestlers — at  Florence. 

The  Arrotino — at  Florence  . 

The  Dying  Gladiator — at  Rome     . 

Venus  leaving  the  Bath— at  Rome 

The  Amazon  of  the  Capitol — at  Rome 

The  Apollo  Belvedere — at  Rome  . 

The  Laocoon — at  Rome 

The  Torso  of  the  Belvedere — at  Rome 

The  Dancing  Faun — at  Naples 

The  Farnese  Bull— at  Naples 


PAI.E 

3 

8 
8 

51 

63 
92 

99 
ic6 
108 
109 
1 12 

113 
115 
116 
118 
119 
125 
12S 
131 
>3^ 
134 

135 
136 

139 
'39 
140 

141 
142 

143 
146 


xu 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


32- 
Zi- 
o\- 
35- 
36. 
37- 
38. 
39- 
40. 
41. 
42. 

43- 
44. 

45- 
46. 

47- 
48. 
49. 
50. 

51- 

52. 
53- 
54- 

55- 
56. 

57- 

58. 

59- 
60. 
61. 
62. 


PACB 

Gods.     Frieze  of  the  Parthenon     .  .  .  .  .163 

Young  Man.     Frieze  of  the  Parthenon   ....      163 

Cavalier.  Ditto  ditto  ,  .  .  .164 

Cavaliers.  Ditto  ditto  ....      164 

Metope  of  the  Parthenon       .  .  .  .  .  .166 

Heads  of  Horses — from  the  Parthenon.      British  Museum     171 
Theseus,  from  tlie  Parthenon         .  .  .  .  .172 

The  Parcse,  from  the  Parthenon     .  .  .  .  •      '75 

Torso         ....  .....      177 

Agrippina  of  Germanicus — at  Rome       ....      183 

Antinous — at  Rome     .......     185 

Equestrian  statue  of  Bartolommeo  Colleoni     .  .  .     207 

Ivy-crowned  Bacchus — at  Florence  .  .  .  .212 

Statue  of  Moses — at  Rome   ....  Frontispiece. 

The  Perseus  of  Canova — at  Rome.  ....     230 

Mausoleum  of  Maria  Christina — Vienna  .  .  ,      232 

Theseus  vanquishing  the  Minotaur — Vienna    .  .  .     234 

Ariadne  on  the  Panther — Frankfort         ....     254 

Bronze  monument  of  Frederick  the  Great — Berlin    .  .     257 

The  Amazon — at  Berlin       ......     258 

Goethe  and  Schiller     .......     259 

Entrance  of  Alexander  into  Babylon        ....      262 

Tomb  of  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy — at  Dijon     .  .         .     266 

The  Flying  Mercury    .......     294 

Fountain  of  the  Innocents — Paris.  ....     298 

Tomb  of  Pierre  de  Breze       ......     301 

Riding-Master  of  Marly — Paris      .....     318 

Ditto         ditto    .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .     319 

Voltaire,  by  Houdon   .......     327 

The  Marseillaise,  by  J.  Rude  .....     333 

Pediment  of  the  Pantheon,  Paris,  by  David    .  ,         .     334 


TtIK 


WONDERS  OF  SCULPTURE. 


BOOK  I. 

ANCIENT   SCULPTURE. 


IN  a  former  work,  the  "  Wonders  of  Painting^' 
we  made  the  preliminary  remark,  that  of  the 
three  arts  of  design,  universally  styled  "  The  Fine 
Arts,"  painting  was  the  latest  in  age,  in  historical 
date.  For  a  long  time  it  was  but  the  handmaid, 
the  accessory,  the  finisher  of  the  other  two.  Sculp- 
ture, also,  although  it  preceded  painting,  long 
remained  subordinate  to  architecture,  which,  of 
course,  was  the  earliest  of  the  three.  From  the 
first  appearance  of  our  race  upon  the  earth,  man 
required  a  habitation  to  shelter  him  from  the  cold 
and  heat,  from  the  fury  of  the  elements,  and  from 
the  attacks  of  wild  beasts.  Soon  arose  a  demand 
for  palaces  as  dwellings  for  those  whose  superior 
.'trength  or  skill  had  made  them  chief?  of  tribes 
and  kings  of  nations  ;  and  temples  had  to  be  raised 

B 


2  ANCIENT  SCU1.PTUBE. 

ill  honour  of  the  powers  of  nature,  which  man,  in  his 
wondering  ignorance  and  awe,  deified  and  wor- 
shipped— invoking  their  blessings  and  deprecating 
their  wrath  by  presents  and  sacrifices. 

Sculpture,  which  employed  the  same  materials 
as  architecture,  wood,  stone,  and  marble,  soon 
stepped  in  and  supplied  the  earliest  ornaments  ; 
and  like  architecture,  it  was  at  first  content  to 
derive  its  ideas  as  well  as  its  materials  from  inor- 
ganic nature.  A  column  was  a  tree  trunk  in  white 
marble,  a  capital  represented  the  sprouting  of 
branches  and  leaves.  Gradually,  however,  arch"- 
tecture  became  perfected,  embellished,  transfigured  ; 
it  became  an  art,  and  from  the  useful  sprang  the 
beautiful.  At  the  same  time,  sculpture  insensibly 
attained  to  importance  and  independence. 

Relics  of  the  first  crude  efforts  at  sculpture  and 
drawing  have  been  preserved  to  us  from  the  Stone 
Age  in  the  clumsy  carvings  on  rocks  or  bones  found 
in  caverns,  once  occupied  by  the  men  of  that 
remote  period,  and  in  the  ruins  of  those  lake  cities 
which  are  almost  as  ancient  as  the  caves  which 
sheltered  the  first  inhabitants  of  our  planet. 

Sculpture,  as  an  art,  gradually  advanced  as  man 
became  interested  in  the  study  of  organised  nature, 
of  animals,  and,  finally,  of  himself.  He  was  no 
longer  content  to  represent  things,  he  endeavoured 


ANCIENT  SCULP TUL'E. 


to  imitate  living  creatures,  and  to  reproduce  his 
own  im:  ^e.  "After  admiring  the  universe,"  says 
M  Charles  Blanc,  "  man  began  to  contemplate  him- 


Fig.  I. — Stone  Age. 

self  ;  he  realised  that  the  human  form  is  adapted 
to  the  spirit,  that  it  is,  so  to  speak,  its  clothing  ; 
that  its  proportions,  its  symmetry,  its  ease  of 
motion,  its  superior  beauty,  render  it  alone,  of  all 
living  forms,  capable  of  fully  manifesting  thought. 


Fig.  2. —  Stone  Age. 

Therefore  he  copies  the  human  body,  and  sculpture 
is  born."  We  add  :  from  this  moment  it  may  be 
called  statuary.     But  as  the  human  mind  required 


4  ANCIENT  'SCULPTURE. 

the  gradual  training  of  ages  before  painting  pro- 
duced what  we  call  a  picture,  so  a  long  period  of 
actual  and  mature  civilization  was  needed  before 
sculpture,  freed  from  its  vassalage  to  architecture, 
could  bring  forth  those  independent  works  which 
we  name  bas-reliets  and  statues. 


(    6    ) 


CHAPTER  I 

EGYPTIAN   SCULPTURE. 

I  ^AR  back  in  that  remote  and  primitive  civiliza- 
-^  tion  which  witnessed  the  birth  and  growth 
of  the  fertile  Nile,  we  must  look  for  the  origin 
of  all  the  arts.  The  Egyptians  excavated  the 
sepulchres  of  Samoun  and  the  temple  of  Karnak 
from  the  rocks,  and  raised  the  great  pyramids 
of  Djizeh  (Geezeh)  on  the  borders  of  the  desert  ; 
they  engraved  epitaphs  on  stelae  or  tablets  ;  they 
placed  rows  of  sphinxes  resting  on  pedestals  in 
the  avenues  of  the  temples  which  contained  the 
images  of  their  gods  and  all  but  deified  Pharaohs. 
Until  the  present  day  it  was  not  unreasonably 
believed  that  Egyptian  art  under  the  mflucnce  of 
the  priesthood,  or  rather,  practised  by  the  priests 
alone — who  had  arrested  its  progress  by  con- 
demning it  to  the  limits  of  an  unchangeable  law, 
and  placing  it  under  the  restrictions  of  religion — 
must  have  been  purely  sacerdotal  from  its  origin 


6  •  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE. 

and  early  development  to  its  total  extinction. 
Recent  discoveries  have  distinctly  proved  this 
to  be  an  error.  It  is  certain,  that  before  they  were 
restricted  by  dogma,  Egyptian  artists  were  able 
freely  and  truly  to  represent  animate  and  in- 
animate forms  in  all  their  variety.  M.  Francois 
Lenormant  justly  remarks  :  "  Now  that  we  are 
well  acquainted  with  its  various  phases,  art  in 
Egypt  appears  to  liave  followed  a  contrary 
direction  in  its  development  to  that  of  any  other 
country.  Other  nations  began  with  purely  sacer- 
dotal art,  and  only  subsequently  and  gradually 
attained  to  true  and  free  imitation  of  nature. 
.  .  Alone  of  all  the  world,  the  Egyptians  began 
with  living  reality  to  finish  with  hieratic  con- 
vention. 

The  proof  of  this  well-founded  assertion  was  com- 
pletely seen  in  the  last  Universal  Exhibition.  The 
most  indifferent  visitors,  ignorant  alike  of  archae- 
ology and  art,  were  struck  dumb  with  admiration 
before  a  wooden  statue  which  has  come  down  to  us 
from  these  most  remote  ages.  "A  miracle  alike 
of  preservation  and  art,"  says  M.  F.  Lenormant, 
•'  this  statue,  as  a  study  of  nature,  as  a  striking  and 
life-like  portrait,  is  unsurpassed  by  any  Grecian 
work.  .  .  .  From  the  inscriptions  on  the  tomb  in 
which  it  was  discovered,  we  know  that  it  represents 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE.  7 

a  certain  Ra-em-Ke,  a  man  of  some  importance 
during  several  reigns  of  the  fifth  dynasty.  .  .  .  The 
sculptor  has  represented  him  on  foot,  calmly  walk- 
ing in  some  town  under  his  government.  .  .  .  Parts 
of  this  figure  have  been  much  injured  ;  ...  it  has 
lost  the  thin  coating  of  coloured  stucco  which  ori- 
ginally covered  it,  and  on  which  the  sculptor  pro- 
bably added  his  finishing  touches.  What  must  it 
not  have  been  when  intact  and  free  from  the 
ravages  of  time  .■'  Everything  is  faithfully  copied 
from  living  nature  ;  ...  it  is  evidently  a  true  por- 
trait. .  .  .  The  modelling  of  the  body  is  marvellous, 
.  .  .  but  it  is  the  head  which  most  challenges 
admiration  ;  it  is  a  prodigy  of  life.  .  .  .  The  mouth, 
parted  by  a  slight  smile,  seems  about  to  speak. 
The  expression  of  the  eyes  is  almost  distressing. 
The  eyeballs  are  shaded  by  lids  of  bronze,  and  are 
formed  of  pieces  of  opaque  white  quartz,  .  .  in  the 
centre  of  which  are  inserted  rounded  bits  of  rock 
crystal  to  represent  the  pupils.  Under  each  crystal 
is  fixed  a  shining  nail,  which  indicates  the  visual 
point  and  produces  the  astonishing  and  life-like 
expression. 

As  this  Ra-em-Ke  lived  under  the  fifth  dynasty, 
his  iconic  statue  must  have  been  executed  about 
the  year  40(X)  B.C.  More  than  5800  years  have 
therefore  passed  over  these  fragile  pieces  of  cedar 


8 


EO  YF  TIAN  SO  ULP  TURK 


and  mimosa  wood  without  effacing  the  marks  of 
the  artist's  chisel.  At  the  same  Universal  Exhi- 
bition was  to  be  seen  the  colossal  statue  in  diorite 


Fig.  3. — Ra-em-Ke. 


Fig.  4. — Schafra. 


(a  substance  harder  than  basalt)  of  a  Pharaoh  of 
the  fourth  dynasty,  the  celebrated  Schafra  (the 
Chephren  of  Herodotus),  who  had  the  second  of 
the  great  pyramids  built  as  a  sepulchre  for  him- 


EG  YP TIA  N  SCULPTURE.  9 

self.     Schafra   lived   more  than  a  century    before 
Ra-em-Ke. 

At  the  Louvre  we  have  two  statues  in  calcareous 
stone,  one  of  the  High  Priest  of  the  White  Bull, 
named  Scpa,  and  the  other  of  his  wife  Nesa,  pre- 
served from  that  early  age  which  witnessed  the 
elevation  of  the  first  great  pyramids,  under  the 
third,  or,  perhaps,  the  second  dynasty.  To  con- 
clude, the  Egyptian  museum  of  Montbijou  at 
Berlin,  in  addition  to  some  bas-reliefs  from  the 
tomb  of  Amten  of  the  time  of  Senefru  I.  of  the 
third  dynasty,  contains  the  entrance  gate  of  the 
pyramid  of  Sakkara  (Sagara),  the  construction  of 
which  carries  us  back  to  the  still  more  remote  age 
fixed  by  the  tables  of  Manetho  (the  correctness  of 
which  has  now  been  so  completely  established)  as 
the  first  of  the  twenty-six  there  ascribed  to  Egypt. 
The  ornaments  on  this  gate  cannot  be  less  than 
seven  or  eight  thousand  years  old.  "  Such  figures 
are  ovenvhelming  ;  .  .  .  it  is  a  stupendous  antiquity 
for  the  work  of  a  man's  hand,  still  more  for  a  monu- 
ment of  true  art.  No  relics  from  ages  so  near  to 
that  of  the  origin  of  our  race  have  been  found  in 
India,  China,  or  Assyria.  But  the  most  over- 
whelming thought  is,  that  instead  of  savage  races, 
we  find  a  firmly  constituted  society,  the  formation 
of  which    must    have    required    long    centuries   of 


■/ 


-*./' 


10  EG  YP  TIAN  SCULP  TUBE. 

development,  a  civilization  far  advanced  in  science 
and  art.  and  possessed  of  mechanical  processes 
suitable  to  the  construction  oi  huge  monuments  of 
indestructible  solidity." — Francois  Lenormant. 

The  primitive  period  from  the  first  to  the  sixth 
dynasty  is  usually  called  the  ancient  empire,  or 
Memphian  Egypt.  As  we  have  before  remarked, 
its  monuments  show  freedom,  indeed,  secularity  of 
art.  Not  until  after  that  confused  and  obscure 
period  between  the  sixth  and  eleventh  dynasties, 
did  the  middle  empire  or  Theban  Egypt,  known  to 
the  Greeks,  commence,  under  which  Egyptian  art, 
condemned  by  religion  to  immobility,  became 
purely  sacerdotal  and  hieratic. 

We  must  here  call  to  mind  that  paramount  and 
universal  idea  which  pervaded  the  religion,  the 
politics,  laws,  sciences,  arts,  public  and  private  cus- 
toms, and,  indeed,  the  very  amusements  and  recrea- 
tions of  ancient  Egypt.  We  allude  to  the  belief  in 
immutability  and  eternity.  Nothing  must  change, 
nothing  must  perish.  The4iving  must  lead  a  life 
of  uniformity,  and  even  the  dead  must  last  for  ever. 
Weary  of  this  perpetual  monotony,  foreign  nations 
pronounced  Egypt  dull  and  melancholy. 

It  was  in  obedience  to  their  national  idea  that 
the  Egyptians,  from  the  earliest  ages,  built  up  the 
pyramids  of  Djizeh   on  imperishable   foundations, 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTVJiE.  11 

and  excavated  the  ^aUs  of  the  kings,  the  temple  of 
Karnak,  the  sepulclires  of  Samoun  and  Thebes 
from  granite  rocks,  and  finally  condemned  arts  of 
decoration,  such  as  sculpture,  never  to  change  their 
subjects,  their  forms,  or  their  proportions.  Fearing 
that  free  imitation  of  nature  in  art  might  infect  the 
human  spirit  with  a  love  of  independence,  the 
priests  restricted  it  by  immutable  rules,  and  im- 
posed models,  which  it  was  bound  to  copy  for  ever. 
It  is  also  very  probable  that,  for  greater  security, 
they  reserved  to  themselves  the  exclusive  culture 
of  the  arts,  as  they  had  that  of  the  sciences,  astro- 
nomy and  medicine,  and  of  literature — public 
records  and  national  chronicles — leaving  only  the 
trades  to  the  laity.  Thus  limited,  art  could  merely 
add  to  the  images  of  the  gods  those  of  the  kings, 
ministers,  and  pontiffs  ;  it  ignored  the  exploits  of 
heroes  and  conquerors,  whether  in  trials  of  mental 
or  bodily  capacity  ;  and  thus  checked  in  its  develop- 
ment, it  could  only  manifest  itself  in  purely  mechan- 
ical delicacy  and  polish.  All  its  phases  of  progress, 
elevation,  debasement,  renaissance,  and  decadence, 
were  confined  to  the  narrow  limits  of  simple  exe- 
cution. So  that  Plato,  in  his  day,  could  justly 
observe  that  painting  and  sculpture,  practised  in 
Egypt  for  so  many  centuries,  had  produced  nothing 
better   at  the   end    than   at   the   beginning ;    and 


12  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE. 

M,  Denon  in  our  own  age  remarks  with  equal  truth  : 
"  The  lapse  of  time  may  have  led  to  some  per- 
fection in  Egyptian  art,  but  each  temple  is  so 
exactly  alike  in  all  its  parts,  that  it  seems  to  have 
been  sculptured  by  the  same  hand ;  nothing 
better,  nothing  worse,  no  negligence,  no  sudden 
flights  of  a  superior  genius."  M.  Denon's  words 
apply  equally  to  statuary,  which  was  but  the  acces- 
sory o(  architecture.  We  think  excellence  would 
have  been  a  more  accurate  term  to  employ  than 
perfcctio7i. 

We  will  presently  endeavour  to  describe  those 
works  in  the  various  collections  of  Egyptian  relics 
most  worthy  of  study  and  admiration.  But  before 
we  turn  to  this  world  of  the  tomb,  which  seems 
never  to  have  been  really  alive,  and  review  its 
sleeping  lions,  pensive  sphinxes,  sluggish  heroes, 
and  recumbent  gods,  without  speech,  hearing,  sight, 
or  motion,  and  notice  those  strange  and  gross  com- 
binations intended  to  embody  the  divinity,  and 
which,  if  meant  to  exalt,  in  reality  debased  it,  it  will 
be  as  well  to  make  some  preliminary  remarks. 
In  the  first  place,  we  may  learn  to  recognise  the 
divinities  by  their  forms  and  symbols,  which  were 
as  unchangeable  as  the  creed  itself;  and,  secondly, 
we  may  discover  at  about  what  period  their  images 
were  made,  and  connect  them  with  the  correspond- 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE.  IS 

ing  phase  of  Egyptian  art,  so  as  to  be  able  to  sa}'-, 
when  before  any  particular  figure  :  "  This  represents 
such  a  divinity,  it  belongs  to  a  certain  period  of 
Egyptian  art,  and  consequently  to  a  corresponding 
era  of  Egyptian  history." 

To  begin  with,  we  gi\-e  the  meaning  of  the  names  of 
different  parts  of  the  clothing  of  Egyptian  statues. 

Pschent,  a  cap  or  crown  worn  by  divinities  or 
Pharaohs.  It  is  double,  composed  of  the  sckaa 
and  the  teshr. 

Schaa,  a  conical  cap,  forming  the  upper  part  of 
the pschciit.      It  is  white. 

Teshr,  a  cylindrical  cap  with  an  inclined  jJeak 
behind,  and  a  spiral  ornament  in  front,  forming  the 
lower  part  of  the  pschent.     It  is  red. 

Alf  {diti  ?),  the  crown  of  Osiris  and  other  divinities, 
composed  of  a  conical  cap  resting  on  the  horns  of  a 
goat,  and  flanked  by  two  ostrich  feathers.  The  alf 
has  a  disk  in  the  centre  of  the  frontlet. 

Tesch.     Royal  military  cap. 

Het,  the  cap  of  Upper  Egypt. 

Claft,  a  head-dress  with  long  lappets  pendent  on 
the  neck  and  shoulders. 

Oskh,  a  semicircular  collar  or  tippet  round  the 
neck. 

Schenti,  a  short  tunic  worn  round  the  loins.  The 
statues  of  the  Pharaoh;?  also  wear  the  royal  apron. 


14  EGYPTIAN  SCULI'TURE. 

Gom,  a  kind  of  sceptre,  terminating  in  the  head 
of  the  animal  called  Koukoitpha. 

Now  follow  the  forms  and  emblems  of  the  chief 
divinities  of  Egyptian  mythology.  When  possible, 
we  shall  add  the  name  of  the  corresponding 
Grecian  and  Roman  divinities,  and  that  of  the 
town  where  they  were  held  in  most  honour. 

A  human  form  (male),  wearing  the  tcsJir  sur- 
mounted by  two  feathers  ;  or  a  human  form  with  a 
ram's  head.  Auien,  Hamvioii,  or  Ammon,  "the 
hidden."  The  supreme  God,  king  of  the  gods. 
Zeus,  Jupiter.     Thebes. 

A  female  form  (woman),  wearing  the  tesJir. 
Mouth,  "the  mother,"  wnfe  of  Avicn.  Hera,  Juno. 
Thebes. 

A  young  man  with  a  single  lock  of  hair  upon  his 
head,  and  the  crescent  of  the  moon.  Choiins  or 
Chons,  "  force,"  son  of  Amen  and  of  Mouth. 
Heracles,  Hercules.     Thebes. 

A  human  form  with  a  goat's  head.  Noiivi, 
"  water,"  called  by  the  Greeks  Zeus  Chnotimis, 
"  creator  of  mankind."  Poseidon,  Neptune. 
Elephantine. 

A  female  form  wearing  a  circular  crown  of 
feathers.  Aneka,  wife  of  Noutn.  Hestia,  Vesta. 
Elephantine. 

A   female  form  wearing  the  het,   with   a   goat's 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE.  15 

horn  on  either  side.  Sate,  "  sun's  arrow  or  beam." 
Another  Juno,  another  wife  of  Jupiter  Chnoumis, 
Elephantine. 

A  bandy-legged  child  or  dwarf,  with  a  scarabaeus 
on  its  head,  or  a  human  form  swathed  like  a 
mummy.  Phtah  or  Phta,  god  of  fire,  creator  of 
the  sun  and  moon.  Hephaestus,  Vulcan.  Mem- 
phis. 

A  female  form  with  a  lion's  head.  Pash't  or 
Pacht  (Bubastis),  "  the  lioness,"  wife  of  Phtah. 
Artemis,  Diana.     Memphis. 

A  human  form  with  the  head  surmounted  with 
two  high  feathers  and  a  lily.  Atwn-Nefer,  called 
"  the  guardian  of  the  nostril  of  the  Sun,"  supposed 
to  be  the  son  of  Phtah  and  of  Pash't.     Memphis. 

A  human  form  with  a  hawk's  head,  wearing  two 
long  feathers.  Mount,  personifying  the  solar  power. 
Ares,  Mars.     Harmonthis. 

A  female  form  with  a  shield  upon  her  breast,  or 
often  w^ith  two  wings,  trampling  the  serpent  Apoph 
under  her  feet.  Neith,  goddess  of  wisdom  and  the 
arts.     Athena  {Athene),  Minerva.     Sais. 

A  simple  female  form  with  the  head  of  a  cow. 
Athor  or  Hathor,  goddess  of  beauty,  personification 
of  the  cow  which  produced  the  sun.  Aphrodite, 
Venus.     Latopolis  and  Athos. 

A  human  form,  hawk-headed,  wearing  the  solar 


10  EGYPTIAN  FCULl'TUEE. 

disk.    Ra  (Re),  son  of  Athor,  personification  of  the 
rising  sun.     Helios.     Heliopolis. 

A  human  form  wearing  the  pschent  on  the  head. 
Aio2iin,  the  personification  of  the  setting  sun. 

A  kneeling  human  form  with  the  solar  disk  upon 
her  head.  Maoii,  "  brilliancy,"  personification  of 
the  light  of  the  sun. 

A  human  form  with  a  crocodile's  head.  Sebak, 
"the  subduer."     Crocodilopolis  (Ombos). 

A  human  form  with  a  goose  upon  its  head.  Sep 
(Seb),  "  star,"  god  of  time.     Chronos,  Saturn. 

A  female  form  with  a  pitcher  of  water  upon  her 
head.  Nupte,  Niitpe  or  Ncpte,  "  abyss  of  Heaven," 
wife  of  Sed.     Rhea,  Cybele. 

A  human  form  with  the  head  of  an  ibis,  some- 
times wearing  the  lunar  crescent.  Thoth,  '^  Logos,  or 
the  word,"  son  of  Ra,  inventor  of  speech  and 
writing,  scribe  of  the  gods.  Hermes,  Mercury. 
Hermopolis. 

A  human  form  with  four  feathers  on  the  head. 
En-pe  or  Emcph,  "  leader  of  the  heaven,"  son  of 
Ra,  another  form  of  the  god  TJioth. 

A  mummy  wearing  the  het.  Ousri  (Osiris), 
eldest  son  of  Scb  and  Niipte,  then  called  Oun-Nefer 
(Onnophris),  "the  manifester  of  good  or  opener  of 
truth."  Dionysiu.s,  the  Bacchus  of  the  Greeks. 
Busiri.s. 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE.  17 

A  mummy  wearing  the  Alf.  Osiris,  then  called 
PetJiempamentes,  "  he  who  is  resident  in  Hades." 
The  Pluto  of  the  Greeks.     Abydos. 

A  female  form  with  a  throne  upon  her  head,  his, 
"  the  seat,"  the  daughter  of  Seb  and  Noicpte,  sister 
and  wife  of  Osiris.     Demeter,  Ceres.     Abydos. 

A  female  form  wearing  on  her  head  the  hiero- 
glyphics of  the  words  mistress  zxidi  palace.  Nep-t-a 
(Nephtys),  "the  mistress  of  the  palace,"  another 
daughter  of  Seb  and  Nonpte^  sister  and  concubine 
of  Osiris.     Persephone,  Proserpine.    Abydos. 

A  human  form  with  a  hawk's  head,  wearing  the 
pschent.  Haroer  (Harueris),  son  of  Sep  and  Noupte. 
His  eyes  are  supposed  to  represent  the  sun  and 
the  moon.  The  elder  Horus,  Apollo.  Apollino- 
polis  Magna. 

(Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus  represent  the  beneficent 
principle.) 

A  human  form  with  an  ass's  head,  or  an  old 
dwarf  in  a  lion's  skin,  wearing  feathers.  Seth,  "  the 
ass,"  son  of  5rZ'  and  Noupte,  the  spirit  of  evil. 
Typhon.     Ombos. 

A  hippopotamus  standing  erect,  with  a  croc:o- 
dile's  tail  and  a  woman's  head.  Taiir  or  Ta-Hcr 
(Thoueris),  wife  of  Seth.     Ombos. 

Seth  (Typhon)  and  Tniir  represent  the  evil 
principle.) 


16  EGYPTIAN  SCULP TUllE. 

A  child  with  weak  legs,  and  locks  of  hair  on 
either  side  of  its  head.  Her,  "  the  path  of  the  sun," 
son  of  Osiris  and  Isis.  The  younger  Horus, 
Harpocrates.     Apollinopolis  Parva. 

A  human  form  with  a  dog's  head.  Anojip 
(Anubis),  surnamed  "  the  embalmcr  of  the  dead," 
and  the  "watcher  of  the  gate  of  the  Sun's  path," 
son  or  brother  of  Osiris.     Lycopolis, 

A  priest  seated  in  a  chair  unrolling  a  volume. 
I-Emp-Hept,  "  coming  in  peace,"  son  of  Tliotli. 
Asclepios,  .i^sculapius.     Philae  (Philoe). 

A  pied  bull  with  the  solar  disk  on  its  head. 
Hepi  (Apis),  "  the  hidden  number,"  the  eternal  son 
of  PhtaJi.     Memphis. 

A  gryphon  with  the  head  of  an  ass.  Bar,  god 
of  the  Assyrians  and  Phoenicians  (Philistines),  the 
Baal  of  the  Bible. 

A  human  form  in  Asiatic  costume,  with  a 
diadem  bearing  an  onyx  cross  on  the  frontlet. 
Renpoii  (Rephan),  god  of  the  Semitic  races. 

A  human  form  with  the  head  of  an  oryx.  Nitbi 
(Nubia),  or  Nashi,  "  the  rebel,"  god  of  the  black 
people. 

A  female  form  wearing  the  /let,  and  carrying  the 
shield  and  spear.  An  fa  (Anaitis),  goddess  of  the 
Armenians  and  Syrians. 

After  this  long  list  of  gods,  or  rather  of  different 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE.  19 

manifestations  of  the  same  god,  which  the 
Egyptians  worshipped  under  so  many  forms,  we 
will  pass  to  the  second  part  of  our  preliminary 
remarks. 

We  have  already  stated  the  nature  of  early 
Egyptian  art  when  still  secular  and  free  from  the 
restrictions  of  dogma.  It  is,  I  believe,  admitted 
that  after  its  submission  to  the  hierarchy  the  art, 
like  the  history  of  Egypt,  may  be  divided  into 
four  principal  epochs.  The  earliest,  or  "  the  archaic 
style,"  is  entirely  included  in  the  middle  empire,  and 
extends  from  the  6th  to  the  I2th  dynasty  (about 
the  year  2000  B.C.)  At  that  time  architecture, 
simple,  massive,  and  colossal,  was  content  with 
piling  up  masses  of  stone ;  and  sculpture,  equally 
solid,  seems  to  have  entirely  forgotten  its  early 
excellence  and  freedom  from  tutelage.  In  the 
statues  of  this  period  the  face  is  large  and  common, 
the  nose  long  and  coarse,  the  forehead  projecting, 
the  hair,  of  scarcely  varying  thickness,  falls  in 
straight  heavy  curls,  and  the  body  is  thick-set  and 
clumsy.  However  the  execution,  and  to  a  certain 
extent  the  style,  improved  steadily  until  the  twelfth 
dynasty. 

At  the  second  epoch,  when  architecture  was  more 
refined,  varied,  and  richer  in  ornaments  and  com- 
binations, employing  columns    and    triglyphs,    &c- 


20  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE. 

(as  seen  in  the  sepulchres  attributed  to  Beni 
Hassan)  ;  statuary  was  advancing  to  relative  per- 
fection, and  growing  in  grace  and  delicacy.  We 
now  find  more  symmetry  and  proportion  in  the 
limbs  of  the  figures,  greater  truth  and  finish  in  the 
features,  the  hair  is  better  shaded,  and  falls  in  more 
graceful  curls  ;  indeed,  some  statues  are  handled 
and  finished  with  the  delicacy  required  for  cameos. 
Bas-relief  became  more  and  more  uncommon,  and 
disappeared  entirely  on  the  accession  of  Rameses 
II.,  surnamed  Sesostori  ("the  son  reared  by  the 
Creator  "),  who  became  the  Sesostris  of  the  Greeks. 
The  invasion  of  the  Arab  Kouschites,  called 
shepherds  (Hyksos),  under  the  seventeenth  dynasty 
(about  2200  B.C.),  led  to  the  immediate  decline,  or 
rather  cessation  and  disappearance  of  art  in  Egypt, 
which  did  not  reappear  until  the  expulsion  of  the 
invaders  five  centuries  later.  After  the  deliverance 
of  Egypt  by  Amosis  (in  the  seventeenth  century 
B.  C),  under  the  famous  reigns  of  Mceris,  Sesostris, 
Rameses  III.,  and  Amenophis,  called  the  new 
empire,  there  was  a  renaissance  of  Egyptian  art. 
Architecture  reached  its  highest  perfection.  Vast 
rectangular  temples  were  raised  with  walls  covered 
with  sculptured  ornaments,  vestibules  with  conical 
domes,  columns  surmounted  by  capitals  represent- 
ing   flowers    or    papyrus    and    lotus    buds.       The 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE  21 

renaissance  of  statuary  was  remarkable  for  a  com- 
plete return  to  the  archaic  style,  and  palpable 
imitation  of  early  sacerdotal  sculpture.  This, 
however,  applies  to  the  style  alone,  the  execution 
was  different.  The  limbs  were  freer  and  more 
rounded,  the  muscles  more  fully  developed,  the 
features  sufficiently  refined  and  varied  to  raise 
them  a  second  time  to  the  dignity  of  portraits. 
The  details  were  completed  with  the  most  minute 
care,  and  the  general  effect  is  produced  by  the 
finish  of  every  part,  rather  than  by  the  breadth  and 
harmony  of  the  whole. 

The  invasion  of  the  Ethiopians,  after  the  22nd 
dynasty  (lOth  century  B.C.),  like  that  of  the  shep- 
herds, led  to  an  interruption  of  Egyptian  art,  which, 
however,  again  revived  on  the  expulsion  of  these  new 
interlopers  in  the  reign  of  Psammetichus  I.,  founder 
of  the  26th  dynasty  (about  600  B.C.).  The  art  of 
this  second,  or  Saite  renaissance,  lasted  no  longer 
than  the  dynasty  from  which  it  took  its  name.  Its 
chief  characteristic  was  the  appearance  of  a  totally 
new  style,  or  rather  the  revival  of  the  portraiture  of 
the  ancient  empire.  At  this  time  the  Egyptians 
combined  the  study  of  nature  and  truth  with  that 
of  traditional  and  hieratic  art.  The  iconic  figures 
of  this  epoch  are  numerous  and  excellent. 

The  conquest   of  Egypt  by  the  Persians   undci 


22  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE. 

Cambyses  (525  B.C.)  again  interfered  with  the  prin- 
ciples and  practice  of  Egyptian  art,  and  led  to  its 
third  and  final  decay.  It  is  true  that  after  Alex- 
ander's conquest,  under  the  Ptolemies,  and  the 
Roman  conquest,  under  Adrian  and  others,  effoits 
were  made  to  introduce  Grecian  civilization  into 
Egypt,  and  more  especially  to  graft  Grecian  upon 
Egyptian  art.  But  these  designs  were  frustrated 
almost  immediately,  and  art  became  totally 
extinct  in  Egypt  under  the  rule  and  worship  of 
the  Pharaohs. 

The  substances  employed  by  Egyptian  sculptors 
were  more  numerous  than  those  in  favour  with  the 
Greeks  ;  they  required  longer  work,  and  were  gene- 
rally harder,  denser,  and  more  durable.  Artists  were 
not  content  with  marble,  and  it  may  be  said  that 
every  other  substance  suitable  to  sculpture  is  to  be 
found  in  their  works — black,  grey,  and  red  granite, 
basalt,  diorite,  porphyry,  jasper,  serpentine,  cor- 
nelian, aragonite,  limestone,  sandstone,  gold,  silver, 
bronze,  iron,  cedar,  pine,  sycamore,  ebony,  mimosa 
or  acacia,  ivory,  glass,  porcelain,  terra-cotta.  The 
bas-reliefs  were  very  low  and  depressed,  and  were 
sometimes  hollowed  out  on  the  reverse  side  of  the 
relief,  like  those  of  engraved  stones  ;  they  were, 
however,  but  little  employed  by  the  Egyptians, 
most  of  their  sculptures  being  in  full  relief. 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE.  28 

In  statues,  at  least  in  all  but  those  in  metal  or 
stone,  the  arms  remain  fixed  to  the  chest,  and 
are  not  separated  from  the  body,  whilst  a  block  of 
the  material  employed  connects  the  legs,  which  are 
no  freer  than  the  arms.  At  the  back  a  plinth  is 
inserted  for  the  cartouche  with  the  inscriptions. 
To  this  general  arrangement,  combined  with  the 
.solidity  of  the  materials,  is  due  the  strange  preser- 
vation of  Egyptian  sculptures  as  compared  with 
the  terrible  mutilation  of  more  recent  Grecian 
works.  The  hair  falls  in  straight  masses  from  the 
top  of  the  head,  and  the  beard,  instead  of  spreading 
along  the  cheeks,  is  merely  plaited  under  the  chin. 
The  eyebrows  and  lashes  extend  almost  to  the 
ears,  the  holes  of  which  are  on  a  level  with  the 
eyes,  indicating  to  a  phrenologist  a  limited  supply 
of  brains,  and  consequently  of  intelligence.  The 
lips  are  very  marked,  dilated,  and  smiling,  a  pecu- 
liarity which  also  occurs  in  the  marbles  of  yEgina, 
even  in  those  which  represent  the  dying  and  the 
dead.  When  the  sculpture  is  in  low  or  hollowed 
relief,  the  profile  is,  of  course,  chiefly  employed  ; 
but  even  then  the  eyes  and  shoulders  are  seen  in 
full,  as  in  the  Assyrian  images,  and  those  by  the 
earliest  Grecian  artists. 

In  all  Egyptian  sculptures  produced  after  the 
archaic  epoch,  the  figures   are  long  and   thin,  the 


24  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE. 

features  calm  and  without  expression,  the  limbs 
and  muscles  in  repose.  In  addition  to  immobility, 
the  chief  characteristic  of  the  sculpture  of  this  age 
was  a  regularity,  a  proportion,  a  perfect  symmetry, 
which  brought  it  into  intimate  connection  with 
architecture  ;  and,  as  I  have  before  remarked,  the 
fine  polish  and  the  exquisite  delicacy  of  the  work 
in  statues  and  bas-reliefs  of  the  hardest  materials 
would  have  been  suitable  to  cameos  and  precious 
stones.  A  modern  sculptor  would  be  puzzled  to 
carve  and  polish  granite,  porphyry,  diorite,  and 
basalt,  in  the  manner  of  the  Egyptians,  and  one  of 
their  gigantic  works  would  require  the  labour  of 
a  lifetime.  The  statues  of  the  gods,  kings,  priests, 
and  officers  of  the  court,  were  subject  to  immutable 
laws  ;  but  often,  especially  during  the  later  epochs, 
the  faces  of  the  merely  human  figures  were  so  true 
to  nature  as  to  become  portraits.  The  different 
deities  had  a  settled  type  of  form  and  feature,  by 
which  they  could  be  recognised  as  readily  as  by 
their  symbols.  The  features  of  reigning  kings  Avere 
often  given  to  these  gods,  and  whilst  it  reflected 
the  tone  of  society,  this  was  certainly  the  most 
shameful  adulation  to  which  art  has  ever  stooped. 
A  man  who  had  been  exalted,  not  only  to  the 
despotic  throne  of  Sesostris,  but  also  to  the 
pedestal    of    Osiris,    required    a    pyramid    for    his 


KGYl'TJAS  SVUlPTi'lih:.  25 

tomb,  which  was  laboured  at  by  a  whole  uation  of 
slaves. 

These  preliminary  observations  may  be  a  useful 
guide  to  the  visitor  to  the  Egyptian  rooms  of  the 
museums  -in  Paris  and  London,  and  may  enable 
him  to  examine  their  contents  with  greater  ease 
and  profit. 

It  would  not  be  easy  to  rebuild  the  Pantheon  of 
Eg}'pt  ;  the  gods  were  few — indeed,  we  are  inclined 
to  believe  that,  like  the  Hebrews,  the  Egyptians 
adored  but  one  deity,  probably  the  goddess  Pash't, 
the  wife  of  Phtah,  known  also  by  the  names  of 
Artemis  and  Hephaestus.  In  the  Louvre  we  have 
but  one  image  of  a  god,  and  no  less  than  eleven 
statues  of  this  goddess,  with  the  head  of  a  lioness 
wearing  the  solar  disc  upon  her  head.  The  breadth 
of  the  lines  and  the  finish  of  the  work  of  four  of 
them  give  a  high  opinion  of  the  artists  of  the 
third  epoch  under  the  iSth  dynasty,  yet  we 
would  willingly  exchange  some  of  these  lioness' 
heads  for  those  of  dogs,  goats,  cows,  or  hawks. 

There  are  more  kings  than  divinities  in  the 
Louvre,  and  their  images  belong  to  various  dy- 
nasties. We  bitterly  regret  the  loss  of  a  cornelian 
statuette  of  Sesurtasen  I.,  of  the  I2th  dynasty, 
which  disappeared  in  the  July  days  of  1830.  It 
■was  the  earliest  of  its  kind,  more  ancient  than  the 


26  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE 

Statues  in  pink  and  grey  granite  of  Sevekhotep  III. 
of  the  1 3th  dynasty.  All  three  were  executed  long 
before  the  invasion  of  the  shepherds,  whereas  the 
four  king-sphinxes  without  cartouches,  who  have 
a  kind  of  lily  engraved  on  their  basalt  brows, 
belong  to  the  ages  of  the  Ptolemies,  to  the  last 
relics  of  the  national  art.  During  the  long  interval 
included  between  these  two  extreme  dates,  the 
1 2th  dynasty  and  that  of  the  Ptolemies,  we  find 
successively  the  head  and  feet  of  colossi  in  pink 
granite,  which  are  fragments  of  images  of  Ame- 
nophis  III.,  called  Memnon  by  the  Greeks,  whose 
vocal  statue  at  Thebes  seemed  to  greet  the  first 
rays  of  the  sun  with  singing.  In  the  ornamented 
cartouches  which  encircle  the  base  of  the  later 
colossus  are  decipherable  the  names  of  twenty- 
three  conquered  races,  followed  by  the  Egyptian 
idea  borrowed  by  the  Psalmist :  "  That  thine  enemies 
may  be  thy  footstool."  The  colossal  statue  in  grey 
and  pink  granite  of  Rameses-Meiamun  (the  Great), 
of  the  19th  dynasty  (about  1500  B.C.),  who,  not 
content  with  raising  the  Rameseum  of  Thebes  as 
his  funeral  monument,  and  sculpturing  his  victories 
at  Aboo  Simbel  and  Luxor  (Luqsor),  deified  himself 
under  the  figure  of  the  sun,  appropriated  to  himself 
the  beautiful  images  of  his  father,  Seti  I.,  and  of 
his  ancestors,  and  substituted  his   own   history  for 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE.  27 

theirs  even  in  the  temple  at  Karnak.  A  sphinx 
(a  lion  with  a  man's  head,  symbol  of  wisdom  and 
strength  combined)  in  pink  granite,  a  portrait  of  the 
same  Pharaoh,  in  the  double  inscription  on  the 
base  of  which  is  a  representation  in  beaten  work  of 
a  gryphon  with  an  ass's  head,  the  type  of  the  god 
Seth  or  Typhon,  then  the  impersonation  of  courage, 
but  later  of  the  spirit  of  evil.  Another  magnificent 
sphinx  in  pink  granite,  portrait  of  the  son  of 
Rameses,  Menephtah,  who,  from  certain  dates  and 
events  of  his  reign,  is  supposed  to  be  the  Pharaoh 
who  was  embroiled  in  disputes  with  Moses,  and 
perished  in  the  Red  Sea  when  pursuing  his  fugitive 
slaves  the  Hebrews.  A  colossal  statue  in  red  sand- 
stone of  Seti  II.,  son  of  Menephtah  (the  Sethos 
of  Manetho  and  Flavius  Josephus),  wearing  the 
pschent  and  holding  a  kind  of  sceptre  in  his  left 
hand,  bearing  his  royal  and  pompous  legend.  The 
figure  of  the  god  Seth,  as  a  man  with  an  ass's  head, 
engraved  several  times  on  the  base  and  the  plinth, 
is  also  in  beaten  work. 

In  the  museum  of  the  Louvre,  amongst  mere 
images,  there  are  some  monuments  which  are  far 
rarer  and  more  valuable  than  the  statues  of  gods 
and  kings.  The  chief  of  these  are  those  already 
named  of  the  priest  Scpa  and  his  wife  Nesa,  con- 
temporary  with   the  first  dynasties    of   the  great 


28  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTUB!-:. 

pyramids,  and  consequently  belon;Ting  to  primitive 
Egyptian  art,  and  not  less  than  six  thousand  years 
old.  The  man  is  naked,  except  for  the  schenti 
round  his  loins,  and  he  holds  a  large  and  small 
fceptre  in  c  ther  hand  ;  the  woman  wears  a  tunic 
with  a  triangular  opening  on  the  breast.  Two 
other  groups  in  calcareous  stone,  one  of  two  men, 
the  other  of  a  man  and  woman,  also  belong  to  the 
remote  antiquity  of  Memphian  art.  Another  group, 
on  the  contrary,  of  the  father  and  son,  Teti  and 
Pensevau,  both  great  standard-bearers,  are  of  the 
second  era  of  portraits,  that  of  the  i8th  dynasty. 
A  statue  in  grey  granite  of  Un-Nefru,  the  first 
prophet  of  Osiris,  or  high-priest  of  the  temple  of 
Abydos,  belongs  to  the  beginning  of  the  second 
decadence  under  the  19th  dynasty  ;  whilst  one  in 
black  granite  of  Horns,  chief  of  soldiers,  son  of 
Psammetichus  and  Novrcii-Sevek,  and  another  in 
black  granite  of  Ensahor,  surnamed  Psammetichus- 
Mowieh,  or  the  Beneficent,  are  splendid  specimens 
of  the  third  and  last,  or  Saite  renaissance,  which 
preceded  the  Christian  era  by  600  years  only. 
They  are  absolute  masterpiec'cs  for  their  style 
and  age,  and  in  them  we  see  in  the  greatest  per- 
fection the  peculiarly  delicate  work  of  Egyptian 
artists  in  substances  which  appear  to  defy  human 
strength  and  patience. 


EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE.  29 

We  have  said  that  bas-reliefs  are  of  rare  oc- 
currence in  Egyptian  sculpture,  as  their  culture 
was  abandoned  long  before  that  of  statuary — indeed, 
from  the  time  of  Rameses  the  Great.  Two  frag- 
ments in  the  Louvre,  representing  a  certain  Totnaa, 
one  of  whose  numerous  titles  was  Surveyor  of 
Royal  Buildings,  are  attributed  to  the  archaic 
period.  Another  fragment,  a  portrait  of  Seve- 
khotep  IV.,  wearing  the  royal  iirceus  {aspic  or  asp), 
to  whom  the  god  Tapherii,  with  the  jackal's  head, 
is  presenting  the  sceptre,  or  symbol  of  life,  with  the 
words  :  "  We  grant  a  life  of  peace  to  thy  nostrils,  O 
good  God,"  is  of  the  13th  dynasty.  But  although 
it  is  more  recent,  an  artist  will  value  a  bas-relief 
from  the  tomb  of  Seti  I.,  founder  of  the  19th 
dynasty,  above  all  others.  It  is  of  calcareous  stone 
and  is  entirely  painted.  Seti  I.,  who,  according  to 
his  epitaph,  conquered  forty-eight  nations  in  the 
north  and  south  of  Egypt,  and  had  the  wonderful 
hypostyle  room  (raised  on  columns)  made  at 
Karnak,  figures  in  this  bas-relief  giving  his  right 
hand  to  the  goddess  Hathor  (Venus,  with  a  cow's 
head),  from  whom  he  is  receiving  a  necklace  with 
the  left  hand.  The  goddess  wears  a  solar  disc 
between  her  horns,  and  the  ura^us  upon  her  fore- 
head. The  symbolic  ornaments  upon  her  robe  are 
a  long  address  to  Pharaoh  :    "  Good  god.,  lord  of 


80  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE. 

diadems,  loved  of  the  gods,  son  of  J7istice  mid  of 
truth ;'  praying  him  to  grant  her  "  thousands  of 
years  of  peaceful  life  and  myriads  of  panegyrics!'  * 

Although  we  have  few  statues  of  Egyptian  gods 
in  the  Louvre,  we  have  a  complete  series  of  them 
in  statuettes.  By  means  of  these  little  figures  in 
gold,  silver,  bronze,  porphyry,  basalt,  stone,  or 
wood,  in  many  cases  covered  with  hieroglyphics, 
which  were  household  gods,  we  are  introduced  to 
the  widespread  polytheism  of  Egypt,  and  we  are 
able  to  rebuild  its  pantheon  entirely.  Here  we 
have  Anvnon-Ra,  lord  of  the  three  zones  of  the 
universe  (the  Egyptian  Jupiter),  his  wife.  Mouth 
(Juno),  his  first-born,  Chons  (Hercules)  ;  here  are 
Num  (Neptune),  and^;^^/^^  (Vesta) ;  /•///«/? (Vulcan), 
and  Pach't  (Diana)  ;  Hunt  (Mars)  and  Hathor 
(Venus)  ;  Thoth  (Mercury),  and  Neith  (Minerva)  ; 
Seb  (Saturn),  and  iV^?///^  (Cybele)  ;  Ra,  Phre,  A  turn, 
or  the  rising,  midday,  and  setting  sun  ;  the  bene- 
ficent triad  of  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus ;  the  male- 
volent pair,  Seth  (Typhon)  and  Taur,  &c.t 

We  have  even  compound  figures,  which  unite 
several  gods  in  one  ;    they  are  double-faced  and 

*  Panegyrics  were  great  state  occasions  when  princes  and  gods 
were  extolled. — (Tr.) 

+  These  three  Egyptian  divinities, — Ammon,  Mouth,  and  Chons — 
Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus,  which  occur  again  in  the  religion  of  the 
Brahmins   as   Brahma,    Vishnu,    and    Siva,    and    in   that    of    the 


EGYPTIAN  fiCULPTURE.  81 

shoulder  to  shoulder.  The  symbols  of  the  divinities 
arc  as  numerous  as  the  gods.  We  know  that,  on 
account  of  true  or  supposed  analogies  and  pre- 
tended resemblances  of  form  and  character,  the 
Egyptians  consecrated  to  each  of  their  gods,  or 
manifestations  of  the  same  god,  worshipped  under 
so  many  different  forms,*  one  of  their  native 
animals,  and  those  so  set  apart  were  called  sacred. 
The  ram  was  the  emblem  of  Amnion,  the  ichneu- 
mon of  Chans,  the  lion  of  PhtaJi,  the  cow  of 
HatJior,  the  ibis  of  Thot,  the  gazelle  of  Seth,  the 
sow  of  Taur,  &c. 

Again,  as  certain  gods  personified  many  divinities 
in  one,  different  parts  of  the  consecrated  animals 
stood  for  single  divinities,  and  monstrous  combina- 


Buddhists  as  Buddha,  Dliarmas,  and  Sangghas— are  all,  like  the 
Christian  trinity,  represented  by  the  rectangular  triangle.  On  this 
fact,  already  noticed  by  Plutarch,  some  learned  travellers  (M. 
Tremaux  amongst  others)  have  recently  relied  to  prove  that  the 
pyramids  of  Eg)pt,  which  appear  triangular  from  every  point  of 
view,  were  religious  monuments,  in  fact  actual  temples,  the  entrance 
to  which  was  marked  by  pylons,  and  the  interiors  of  which  were 
equally  suited  to  the  sacrifice  of  the  living  as  to  the  burial  of  the 
dead.     A  pyramid  would  be  a  sepulchral  chapel. 

*  Plutarque  diet  que  ce  n'cstoit  pas  le  chat  ou  le  bceuf  (pour 
exemple)  que  les  yEgjptiens  adoroient,  mais  qu'ils  adoroicnt  en  cs 
betes-la  quelque  image  des  facultes  divines  :  en  celle-ci  la  patience, 
en  celle-la  la  vivacite,  ou  I'impatience  de  se  voir  enfemiez  ;  par  oil  ils 
representoient  la  Liberie,  qu'ils  aimoient  et  adoroient  au  dela  de 
toute  autre  faculte  divine;  et  ainsi  des  aultres. — (Montaigne.) 


32  FMYPTIAN  SCrLPTUBE. 

tions  of  their  limbs  were  types  of  a  complex  unity. 
They  were  called  symboHc  animals.  The  sphinx, 
as  the  impersonation  of  united  intelligence  and 
power,  could  represent  other  gods  according  to  the 
emblem  on  its  head.  The  different  headdresses  of 
the  ura^us  or  asp  could  severally  typify  all  the 
goddesses  ;  in  fact,  by  heterogeneous  amalgamation, 
all  the  sacred  animals  were  converted  into  single 
impersonations  of  many  types.  The  beetle,  or 
scarabaeus,  generally  made  in  enamelled  terra-cotta, 
enjoyed  the  privilege  of  being  a  sort  of  common 
framework  on  which  were  engraved  images  of  the 
gods,  hieroglyphics  of  their  names,  or  the  sacred, 
typical,  and  symbolic  animals.  This  circum- 
stance, which  connects  them  with  sculpture,  ex- 
plains the  immense  number  of  amulets  of  this  form 
found  in  tombs  and  collected  in  museums. 

Since  our  illustrious  Champollion  discovered  the 
secret  of  the  hieroglyphics,  which  had  remained 
hidden  for  two  thousand  years,  the  ste/cs,  or  tablets 
with  historical  and  funereal  inscriptions,  have 
become  the  true  annals  of  Egypt.  The  sU/cs  con- 
sist of  a  mixture  of  figures  and  symbols,  some 
merely  written,  and  some  engraved  in  relief, 
hollowed  out,  or  produced  by  a  combination  of  the 
two  processes,  so  that  they  serve  to  unite  sculpture 
and  painting  to  writing  properly  so  called  ;  and  for 


EGYPTUN  SCULP  TUBE.  33 

these  reasons  they  may  be  considered  works  of  art, 
and  claim  a  place  in  museums.  The  historical 
tablets,  like  the  Roman  Capitoline  tables,  were 
destined  to  preserv^e  the  memory  of  great  public 
events.  Although  the  epitaphs  were  only  written 
in  memory  of  the  dead,  they  form  a  collection  of 
useful  documents  relating  to  religious,  domestic, 
and  even  national  history. 

The    Christians,    the    Mahommedans,    and    the 
Egyptians  alike  begin  most  of  their  epitaphs  with 
an  invocation  of  the  Supreme  Being.     The  first  call 
"  on  the  name   of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and 
of  the  Holy  Ghost  ;"  the  second,  on  that  of  "  Allah, 
the   forgiving,   the   merciful  ;"  the   third,  on   "  Baf, 
great  god,  lord   of  heaven,"  whom  they  represent 
by   the   solar  disc    between  two   outspread  wings. 
Like  the  Ferouhcr  of  the  Assyrians,  the  cardinal 
points  are  indicated  in  this  figure  either  by  one  of 
the  mystical  eyes  of  Horjis  of  the  North  and  Horns 
of  the   South,  or  by  the   two  sacred  jackals,  which 
typify  the   utmost   limits   of  the  north  and  south. 
Then  follows  the  prayer  addressed  to  Osiris,  as  the 
supreme    deity    of    the    infernal    regions,    called 
Pethempamcntes,  because   he   is    the    dispenser   of 
all  the  blessings  which   the  human  soul  can   enjoy 
in  its  pilgrimage  across  the  unknown  world.     As 
there  was  no  fixed  formula  for  this  prayer,  and  the 

D 


34  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE. 

words  could  be  varied  if  the  sense  were  retained, 
Egyptian  poets  could  sing  the  praises  of  the  de- 
ceased and  the  hymn  to  the  god  oi  Anient i  (hell) — 
which  was  sometimes  addressed  to  other  protecting 
deities  as  well — in  oriental  style. 

The  beauty  of  the  figures  and  emblems,  and  the 
delicacy  of  the  execution  of  the  stelcB  passed  through 
the  same  phases  of  progress — interruption,  renais- 
sance, and  decadence — as  did  the  arts  of  archi- 
tecture and  statuary.  They,  too,  had  their  four 
epochs  of  relative  excellence  in  the  archaic  ages 
and  under  the  I2th,  i8th,  and  Saite  dynasties  ;  and 
these  historical  phases  can  only  be  traced  in  the 
Louvre  with  any  exactness  in  the  steles,  which  are 
far  more  numerous  than  the  statues  and  bas- 
reliefs.* 

What  we  have  said  of  the  steles  applies  equally 
to  the  sarcophagi,  a  name  which  has  been  given 
without  due  consideration  to  boxes  or  tubs  of 
granite,  basalt,  or  calcareous  stone,  intended  to 
contain  mummies.  In  very  early  times,  up  to  the 
age  of  the  Shepherds,  these  tubs,  even  those  appro- 
priated to  royalty,  were  entirely  without  ornament. 
Grand  decorations  were  not  used  for  them  until 
the    1 8th    dynasty,   and  then,   during  the    second 

*  See  the  chapter  on  the  Egyptimi  Museum  in  the  ^^  Museums  of 
Paris, '^  pp.  414-418. 


EGYPTIAN  SCULP TUIiE.  35 

renaissance  under  the  Saitc  kings,  long  funereal 
pictures  and  countless  groups  were  engraved  upon 
ihem.  The  sarcopJiagl  superseded  the  stcl(S  in 
hieroglyphic  art.  Champollion  commenced  the 
stud}-  of  them,  and  had  at  last  grasped  their 
meaning  before  his  premature  death.  "  As  the 
earthly  life  was  regulated  by  the  diurnal  course  of 
the  sun,  so  the  life  of  the  soul  in  its  wanderings 
after  death  was  guided  by  the  course  of  the  god  of 
the  lower  world,  who  was  supposed  to  revolve 
during  the  night." 

Champollion  himself  brought  home  the  chief  of 
the  sarcophagi  of  the  Louvre,  the  one  which  con- 
tains the  body  of  a  basilico-granimates  called  TaJio, 
priest  of  Imhotcp  (the  Egyptian  yEsculapius),  under 
the  26th  dynasty.  Every  part  of  it,  inside  and  out, 
is  covered  with  inscriptions,  written  in  groups  on 
the  retrograde  system.  It  is  considered  the  master- 
piece of  engraved  sculpture  of  the  Suite  epoch — 
indeed,  artists  are  never  weary  of  admiring  these 
thousands  of  figures,  all  of  which  are  cut  with  as 
much  precision  and  good  taste  as  if  they  were 
on  precious  stones. 

To  complete  our  account  of  the  sculptured  relics 
found  in  sepulchres  of  important  personages,  we 
must  notice  those  funereal  vases,  improperly  called 
canopi  by  the  Romans,  because   they  thought   they 


30  EGYPTIAN  SCULV'IVKK. 

recognised  in  their  sculptured  lid  and  rounded  base 
an  image  of  the  fabulous  god  Canopus.  The  canopi, 
the  use  of  which  can  be  traced  from  the  earliest 
times  and  is  lost  sight  of  under  the  Ptolemies,  have 
been  found  in  great  numbers  in  the  sepulchres  of 
Memphis,  Thebes,  and  Abydos.  They  were  the 
vases  in  which  the  priests  called  diolchytes,  whose 
office  it  was  to  embalm  the  dead,  placed  the  brains, 
heart,  and  all  the  intestines,  which  they  separated 
from  the  rest  of  the  mummy.  They  are  invariably 
found  in  series  of  four  in  each  tomb  ;  their  lids 
consist  of  the  heads  of  \.\\<t  four  assessors  of  Aincnti, 
who  were  charged  to  bring  the  dead  before  the 
forty-two  judges  oi  Avietiti,  which  were  as  numerous 
as  the  different  kinds  of  sin,  and  presided  over  by 
the  goddess  Rhmci  (Truth  or  Justice).  These  four 
genii  of  the  dead  are  Amset,  son  of  Osiris,  with  a 
man's  head  ;  Hapi,  son  of  Phtah,  with  a  baboon's 
head  ;  Sinmntf  (or  Tuautimitf),  with  a  jackal's 
head;  2^nd  Kcbhsfiuf  {or  Kcbsnif),  with  a  hawk's 
head.  Each  one  of  these  sepulchral  vases  has  an 
inscription,  occasionally  coloured,  cut  into  its  outer 
surface.  Sometimes  it  is  an  address  from  one 
of  the  spirits  or  genii  to  the  Osirien  (the  dvv'eller  in 
the  abode  of  Osiris),  or  it  is  the  speech  of  some 
other  divinity.  On  the  vase  Amset  we  find  one 
from    the    goddess    Isis  ;    on    the    vase    Hapi    the 


KCIYPTrAN  SCULPTUBE.  37 

goddess  Nephthys  speaks  ;  on  that  called  Shitviutf 
the  goddess  Neitli  ;  on  that  of  Kebsnif,  the  goddess 
Selk.  The  four  canopi  on  the  chimney-piece  of  the 
room  which  contains  those  belonging  to  the  Louvre 
are  admirable  specimens  of  these  monuments. 

There,  too,  are  to  be  found  numerous  relics  of 
the  religious,  civil,  and  domestic  life  of  ancient 
Egypt,  which  cannot  fail  to  interest  those  who  care 
to  recall  the  life  of  an  extinct  people,  and,  as  the 
geologist  builds  up  the  antediluvian  world  with 
fossils,  to  reconstruct  a  bygone  civilization  from  the 
ruins  it  has  left.  The  astonishing  preservation  of 
so  many  objects  is  easily  explained.  They  are  all 
from  tombs  which  were,  so  to  speak,  built  foi 
eternity.  In  a  country  where  it  was  believed  that 
the  dead  would  return  to  reassume  and  reanimate 
their  bodies  ;  in  a  country  where  the  chief  occupa- 
tion of  life  was  to  prepare  for  death  ;  the  very 
corpses,  embalmed  in  their  swaddling  wrappings 
and  bandages,  must  have  an  endless  duration  ; 
and  to  bear  the  dead  company  in  their  long  and 
unknown  wanderings,  the  objects  they  best  loved 
when  living  were  shut  in  with  them.  But  these 
things  belong  rather  to  archaeology  than  to  art, 
and  we  must  linger  over  them  no  longer.* 

It  seems  unnecessary  to  pass  from  the  Louvre  to 
*  See  the  chapter  already  quoted,  pp.  420-429. 


oar 


38  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE. 

the  British  Museum,  to  describe  the  statues,  statu- 
ettes, tablets,  sarcophagi,  &c.,  that  are  London's 
share  of  the  spoils  of  Egypt.*  I  will  only  name  one 
small  figure  of  the  goddess  Taur,  wife  of  Seth 
(Typhon,  the  evil  principle).  She  is  represented  as 
a  hippopotamus,  standing  on  its  hind  legs,  with 
pendent  arms,  a  lion's  head,  a  woman's  breasts, 
and  a  crocodile's  tail.  This  strange  figure,  which 
recalls  the  ChimcBra  of  the  Greeks,  and  certain 
demons  of  the  middle  ages,  is  a  very  ancient  proof 
of  the  eternal  truth  that  man  can  invent  nothing 
beyond  what  his  senses  have  realised  ;  and  that  in 
the  creation  of  any  thing  or  being,  his  only  idea  of 
progress  is  a  monstrous  combination  of  different 
parts  of  creation. 

We  cannot,  however,  leave  the  British  Museum 
without  saying  a  word  of  the  celebrated  monument 
known  as  the  Rosetta  stone.  It  was  found  during 
the  French  occupation  of  1799,  near  the  town  from 
which  it  takes  its  name  (the  ancient  Bolbitinum, 
called  Rachid  by  the  Arabs),  in  the  ruins  of  a 
temple  dedicated  to  the  god  Atiini-Nefer  by  the 
Pharaoh  Nechao.  The  inscriptions  on  this  stone, 
written  by  order  of  the  high  priests,  assembled  at 
Memphis  to  invest  Ptolemy  V.  (Ptolemy  Epiphanes) 

*  See  tlie  cliapter  British  Museum,  in  the  ^^  iVuseuiiis  of  England." 
Pp.  82-88. 


/;  a )  r  tia  n  s  c  ul  p  tune.  39 

with  royal  prerogatives  in  193  B.C.,  commemorate 
the  services  rendered  to  the  country  by  this  prince. 
But  it  is  not  this  which  makes  the  Rosetta  stone 
so  valuable  and  famous.  By  a  fortunate  coinci- 
dence these  inscriptions  are  engraved  in  three  lan- 
guages and  three  characters  :  i.  hieroglyphics  or 
hieratic  writing  ;  2.  demotic  or  enchorial  writing  ; 
3.  Greek  writing.  The  last  was  easily  read  and 
interpreted,  and  a  comparison  instituted  between  it 
and  the  hitherto  unknown  hieroglyphics,  which 
repeated  the  same  thing,  so  that  the  Rosetta  stone 
became  the  first  key  to  hieroglyphic  writing.  To 
Champollion  the  elder,  the  learned  and  regretted 
author  of  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs,  belongs  the 
honour  of  this  important  discovery.  But  although 
Frenchmen  were  the  interpreters  of  this  precious 
historical  monument,  on  which  they  carried  out 
their  first  researches,  the  English  have  obtained  it 
as  a  trophy  of  war.  We  think,  however,  that 
science,  not  arms,  should  have  decided  to  whom 
it  rightly  belonged.  We  were  supposed  to  be 
compensated  for  its  loss  by  the  too  famous  Zodiac 
of  Denderah,  which  will  never  lead  to  anything  but 
great  and  complete  mystification.  It  was  supposed 
to  be  of  fabulous  antiquity,  to  have  come  down 
from  the  most  remote  ages  ;  and  it  is  in  reality, 
perhaps,  no  older  than  the  later  Ptolemies  or  the 


40  EGYPTIAN  SCULPTURE. 

first  Caesars.  It  was  to  throw  a  vivid  light  upon 
the  astronomical  science  concealed  by  the  priests 
in  the  mysteries  of  their  temples  ;  and  behold  we 
discover  that  it  is  but  a  simple  astrological  figure, 
a  mere  horoscope  !  What  a  downfall  !  Alas,  how- 
can  this  useless  and  ridiculous  Zodiac  console  us 
for  the  loss  of  the  Rosetta  stone. 

Berlin,  too,  has  its  Egyptian  museum.  It  con- 
tains some  colossal  statues  in  black  and  green 
granite,  some  sarcophagi  with  mummies,  and  ev^en 
a  complete  collection  of  sacred  animals.  But  after 
the  bas-reliefs  oi  Aintcii,  and  the  gate  of  the  pyra- 
mid of  Sakkara,  already  mentioned,  the  most 
important  object  is  a  sepulchral  cJiamber,  discovered 
in  1823,  in  the  necropolis  of  Thebes,  and  removed 
entire.  A  long  quadrangular  tomb  rises  in  the 
centre,  covered  with  hieroglyphical  paintings, 
around  which  are  grouped — two  statuettes  in 
painted  cedar  wood — two  boats  exactly  like  those 
now  in  use  on  the  Nile,  containing  figures  repre- 
senting the  mummy's  escort — the  four  amphorse 
of  the  genii  of  Amenti — four  earthenware  dishes 
covered  with  sycamore  branches — two  priests'  rods — 
an  ox's  head,  and  a  wooden  pillow.  This  sepulchre, 
belonging  to  a  high  priest  called  Mentichetes,  who 
lived  under  the  12th  dynasty,  more  than  four 
thousand  years  ago,  is  one  of  the  most   complete 


EGYPTIAN  SCri.rTVUE.  41 

and  valuable  of  all  the  antiquities  of  Upper  Egypt. 
It  relates  at  the  same  time  to  history,  religion,  and 
art. 

But  thanks  to  the  untiring  efforts  and  fortunate 
discoveries  of  M.  Mariette,  aided  by  the  patronage 
and  liberality  of  the  viceroy,  Egypt  itself  will  soon 
possess  the  richest  Egyptian  museum. 

The  marvellous  wooden  statue  of  Ra-em-K^, 
who  lived  under  the  5th  dynasty  ;  that  in  calcareous 
stone  of  Ra-Ncfcj\  priest  of  Phtah  at  Memphis,  at 
the  same  time  ;  and,  finally,  the  earliest  of  all,  that 
of  the  Pharaoh  Schafra  IV.  of  the  4th  dynasty, 
which  was  found  at  the  bottom  of  a  well  in  the 
temple  near  the  great  Sphin:  were  all  lent  to  the 
Universal  Exhibition  of  1867  by  M.  Mariette. 
These  invaluable  monuments  of  primitive  Egyptian 
art  belong  now  to  the  rising  museum  at  Boulak, 
near  Cairo. 


(    42    ) 


CHAPTER  II. 

ASSYRIAN   SCULPTURE. 

WE  now  come  to  consider  the  no  less  valuable 
monuments  of  that  other  ancient  civiliza- 
tion, this  time  Asiatic,  which  arose  on  the  banks  of 
the  Tigris  and  Euphrates,  and  is  said  to  have  been 
founded  by  Assur  an  '.  Nimroud,  with  the  empires 
of  Nineveh  and  Babylon,  forty-five  centuries  before 
our  own  age  (about  2680  B.C.).  By  the  union  of 
the  two  empires  under  the  great  Semiramis,  this 
civilization  spread  even  to  the  Indus,  and  rising 
like  a  phoenix  from  the  pyre  of  Sardanapalus,  it 
lived  on  through  the  second  empire  under  Shalma- 
neser,  Sennacherib,  and  Nebuchadnezzar,  until  the 
conquest  of  Nineveh  by  Cyaxeres,  and  of  Babylon 
by  Cyrus  (600  and  538  B.C.). 

Assyrian  civilization  rivalled  that  of  Egypt  in 
antiquity  and  duration,  and  it  certainly  influenced 
that  of  the  Greeks  and  Etruscans,  and  consequently 
of  all  Europe,  more  than  the  Egyptian.     The  most 


ASSYBJAS  SCULP  TUBE.  43 

ancient  relics  of  Grecian  and  Etruscan  art  bear 
palpable  marks  of  imitation  of  the  early  Assyrian 
style.  We  find  this  in  the  buildings  of  the  islands 
of  Cyprus,  Rhodes,  Crete,  and  Sicily ;  in  the 
metopes  of  the  temple  of  Selinuntium  ;  in  the  lions 
and  the  frieze  of  the  Treasure  of  Atreus,  at 
Mycenae  ;  in  the  bas-reliefs  collected  at  Marathon  ; 
in  some  of  the  figures  of  the  Greek  zodiac  ;  in  the 
painted  vases  (called  Etruscan)  of  Cervetri,  Vulci, 
Canino,  and  Nola  ;  in  the  terra-cottas,  the  silver 
chalices,  and  the  jewels  brought  from  Cyprus,  Ccere 
(the  ancient  Agylla),  Melos,  Delos,  Athens,  Corinth, 
and  finally  from  Kertch  in  the  Crimea,  which  could 
once  boast  of  the  palace  and  tomb  of  the  great 
Mithridates  ;  we  find  it  even  in  the  ornaments  of 
Grecian  architecture  at  the  zenith  of  its  perfec- 
tion, in  its  triglyphs,  palm-leaves,  egg-mouldings, 
rosettes,  and  maeanders.  In  fact,  we  can  no  longer 
agree  with  the  antiquaries  of  the  last  century,  who 
attributed  the  works  of  art  in  every  material,  at 
Persepolis,  to  captive  Greeks.  We  must,  on  the 
contrary,  conclude  that  the  productions  of  the 
ancient  Hellenes  were  largely  borrowed  from  the 
Assyrians,  the  predecessors  of  the  Persians  on  the 
borders  of  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris,  if  indeed  the 
latter  were  not  their  real  authors. 

It  is  no  less  evident  that  the  civilization  of  the 


44  ASSYRIAX  sr'U/.PTilBE. 

Phoenicians,  like  that  of  all  Asia  Minor,  at  the 
epoch  preceding  that  of  the  Greek  colonies,  was 
purely  Assyrian.  The  Hebrews,  too,  were  brought 
into  close  contact  with  Phoenicia  and  Assyria  ;  they 
had  the  same  origin  and  institutions,  and  we  may 
almost  say  the  same  language  as  the  Assyrians  ; 
they  often  fell  into  their  idolatries  ;  they  were  con- 
stantly in  subjection  to  them,  and  were  in  captivity 
at  Babylon  for  many  years  after  the  division  of 
Judah  and  Israel — in  short,  they  borrowed  their 
civilization  entirely  from  their  powerful  neighbours 
and  conquerors,  the  Assyrians. 

The  proof  of  this  assertion,  which  would  have 
appeared  very  bold  and  audacious  a  few  years  ago, 
is  to  be  found  in  a  thousand  passages  of  Scripture, 
many  of  which,  formerly  unintelligible,  may  now 
be  explained  by  the  aid  of  objects  exhibited  in  the 
museums  of  London  and  Paris.  I  will  borrow  a 
few  instances  from  the  clear  and  learned  review  of 
M.  Adrien  de  Longperier  :  "What were  these  lions, 
these  bulls,  these  winged  cherubims,  which  the 
Phoenician  sculptors  sent  by  Hiram  to  King 
Solomon,  placed  in  the  temple  of  Jerus  ilem .' 
Mere  copies  of  symbolic  Assyrian  figures.*    Who 

*  The  Law  of  Moses,  like  that  of  Abraham  in  former  days,  and 
subsequently  that  of  Mahomet,  was  iconoclast.  "  Thou  shalt  not 
make  unto  thee  any  graven  image,  or  the  Jikeness  of  anything  that 


« 

was  the  personage  described  by  the  prophet  Daniel 
(who  was  educated  at  the  court  of  Nebuchad- 
nezzar), when  he  said  :  '  His  garment  was  as  white 
as  snow,  and  the  hair  of  his  head  Hke  the  pure 
wool.'  The  answer  is  seen  in  the  tunic  painted 
with  white  Assyrian  figures  with  tlieir  hair  in  small 
ringlets.  How  could  this  same  prophet  Daniel  add 
ten  horns  to  the  fourth  typical  animal  which  he 
saw  in  his  dream  ?  and  why  did  Samuel's  mother 
say  in  her  song  :  £i  cxaltatuvi  est  conui  maun  in 
Deo  ineo  ?  In  the  great  winged  bulls  which  are 
the  representations  of  the  Assyrian  kings  as  the 
sphinx  (man-lion)  was  of  the  Pharaohs  of  Egypt, 
we  see  that  ten  horns  could  be  placed  below 
the  tiara,  and  that  the  horn  was  the  sign  of  power 
and  glory.  Why  does  Daniel  say  again :  '  His 
throne  was  like  the  fiery  flame,  and  his  wheels  as 
burning  fire  .-''  It  i^  a  vivid  metaphor  suggested  by 
the  chair  on  wheels  which  was  the  throne  of  the 


is  in  Heaven  above,  or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  in  the  water 
that  is  under  the  earth  :  thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  them  or  serve 
them.  If  thou  shalt  make  me  an  altar  of  stones,  thou  shalt  not 
make  it  of  hewn  stone  .  .  .  thou  shalt  build  an  altar  unto  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  whole  stones  :  thou  shalt  not  lift  up  any  iron  tool 
upon  them."  (Exodus  xx.  4,  5  ;  Deul.  xxvii.  5.)  The  Jews  must 
therefore  necessarily  have  borrowed  the  sculptured  ornaments  of 
their  temple  from  the  art  of  their  neighbours  and  masters,  the 
Assyrians. 


46  ASSmiAN  SCULPTURE. 

Assyrian  kings.  What  do  the  allusions  in  the 
book  of  Kings,  and  that  of  Isaiah  to  Nisroch,  the 
god-bird,  signify  ?  It  is  the  Assyrian  divinity  with 
an  eagle's  head  and  a  man's  body,  holding  a  fir  cone 
in  the  right  hand  and  a  basket  or  pail  in  the  left  ? 
What  is  the  symbol  of  the  old  Hebrew  shekels 
called  the  budding  rod  of  Aaron  ?  It  is  the  stem 
of  the  poppy  with  three  capsules  which  so  many 
divinities,  kings,  and  priests  carr}-  in  the  Assyrian 
bas-reliefs,  &c.  I  must  add  that  in  Ni?ieveh  and 
Babylon  Mr.  Layard  mentions  as  many  as  fifty- 
five  names  of  persons  and  places  taken  from  the 
Bible  which  also  occur  in  the  Assyrian  annals 
recently  deciphered  ;  and  since  the  publication  of 
this  beautiful  book,  which  followed  Nineveh  and 
its  Reniai7is,  others  have  been  discovered  proving 
how  great  was  the  resemblance  and  how  constant 
the  communication  between  Nineveh  and  Jeru- 
salem." 

This  visible  influence  of  Assyrian  civilization  on 
that  of  the  Greeks  on  the  one  hand,  and  on  that  of 
the  Hebrews  on  the  other,  was  so  great  that  it  may 
be  said  to  connect  Homer  with  the  Bible,  whilst  it 
necessitates  the  study  of  Assyrian  monuments  by 
any  artist  anxious  faithfully  to  represent  biblical 
scenes,  and  largely  increases  the  importance,  the 
charm,  and  the  utility  of   recent  discoveries.       It 


ASsyniAX  SCULl'TURE.  47 

promises  to  open  a  large  field  for  the  investigations 
of  science,  at  the  same  time  that  it  adds  an  entirely 
new  chapter  to  the  history  of  art. 

Thirty  years  ago  the  name  of  the  Assyrians  was 
only  to  be  found  in  books  ;  it  had  never  appeared 
in  the  catalogue  of  a  museum.  It  was  in  1842  that 
M.  P.  E.  Botta,  French  consul  at  Mosul,  guided 
by  hints  given  by  M.  Rich  as  early  as  1820,  and 
by  local  traditions,  conceived  the  idea,  which  will 
be  his  glory,  of  searching  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
capital  of  the  Assyrian  kings.  He  began  his 
operations  under  the  hillock  Koyunjik,  at  the 
north  of  the  village  of  NiiiioualL  the  name  of 
which  still  bears  witness  to  the  site  of  Nineveh, 
on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Tigris,  of  that  Nineveh 
said  by  the  prophet  Jonas  to  be  "  three  days' 
journey "  in  circumference.  Not  disheartened  by 
the  paltry  results  of  his  first  efforts,  he  set  to  work 
again  near  the  village  of  Khorsabad,  about  sixteen 
kilometres  to  the  north-east  of  Mosul,  on  the  left 
bank  of  a  stream  which  flows  into  the  Tigris,  after 
passing  over  the  walls  of  ancient  Nineveh.  There 
his  well-directed  efforts  were  crowned  with  com- 
plete success  ;  he  discovered  an  entire  palace,  with 
its  walls,  doors,  rooms,  and  decorations  perfect. 
They  were  laid  bare  and  dug  from  the  depths  of 
the  earth,  and  the  principal  objects  which  could  be 


48  ASSYJilAN  SCULPTUJiE. 

removed  were  taken  to  France  by  way  of  the  Tigris 
and  Bagdad,  and  arrived  at  Paris  in  February,  1847. 
This  palace  of  Khorsabad,  the  spoils  of  which  have 
enriched  the  Louvre,  was  probably  a  pleasure 
chateau,  a  Versailles  of  the  princes  of  Nineveh. 
From  the  royal  inscription  repeated  several  times 
on  fragments  brought  to  Paris — Sargon,  great  king, 
powerful  king,  king  of  the  kings  of  the  country  of 
Assiir — we  may  reasonably  suppose  that  the  palace 
of  Khorsabad  was  built  by  Sargon,  son  or  father  of 
Sennacherib.  As  Sargon,  according  to  the  calcu- 
lations of  chronologists,  reigned  between  the  years 
720  and  668  B.C.,  the  building  of  Khorsabad  must 
have  preceded  the  reign  of  Cyrus,  the  destroyer  of 
the  Assyrian  empire,  by  a  century  and  a  half ;  it 
must  have  been  contemporary  with  the  sons  of 
Codrus,  archons  of  Athens,  and  with  the  foundation 
of  Rome  at  the  epoch  assigned  to  the  king  or 
myth,  Numa  Pompilius. 

Begun  by  M.  Botta,  these  fortunate  excava- 
tions were  continued  with  the  same  success  by 
M.  Victor  Place,  whilst  MM.  Jules  Oppert  and 
Thomas  (after  Fulgence  Fresnel,  who  fell  a  victim 
to  the  climate)  made  others  on  the  site  of  Babylon 
and  that  of  Borsippa,  the  Tower  of  languages,  the 
Tower  of  Babel.* 

*  111  i860,  M.  Place  discovored  a  large  room  in  tlie   Palace  of 


ASSVIiJAN  SCULPTURE.  49" 

But  these  excavations  were  made  so  near  British 
territory  that  the  English  were  anxious  to  find 
similar  treasures  for  themselves.  In  1845  Mr. 
Layard  discovered,  in  a  desert  place  called  Nimrod, 
where  the  little  river  Zab-Ala  flows  into  the  Tigris, 
four  palaces,  the  most  ancient  of  which  was 
founded  by  one  of  the  predecessors  of  Sargon, 
whose  name  read  thus,  Assur  Ak/i-Ba/,  indicates 
the  Sardanapalus  of  the  Greeks  ;  besides  two  little 
temples,  one  dedicated  to  the  Assyrian  Hercules, 
and  the  other  to  the  FisJi^god,  probably  the  Oannes 
of  the  Babylonians  and  the  Dagon  of  the  Philis- 
tines, whose  image  fell  before  the  ark,  and  whose 
temple  was  destroyed  by  Samson.  In  1849  Mr. 
Layard  extended  his  researches  to  Koyunjik,  even 


Khorsabad,  which  he  called  the  magazine  of  Jars,  probably  the 
cellar  of  the  Assyrian  kings.  It  contained  an  immense  number  of 
clay  jars,  like  the  iridos  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Tiiiajas,  used  for 
keeping  wine  and  oil,  introduced  into  Spain  by  the  Arabs.  He  also 
discovered  long  colonnades  of  columns  in  moulded  clay,  the 
external  ornaments  of  the  palace,  besides  the  eight  doors  of  the  old 
villa  let  into  the  walls  and  opening  on  to  paved  alleys,  amongst 
which  was  one  true  monument  of  art,  a  triumphal  arch.  The 
gynecrea  of  the  palace  ;  the  buttresses  entirely  cased  in  painted  and 
enamelled  bricks  ;  and  some  statues  in  gypsUrn  marble,  which  were 
probably  mere  carj-atids,  were  also  found  by  M.  Place  ;  and  he  it 
was  who  had  the  immense  bulls,  of  which  we  shall  presently  speak, 
brought  to  the  Louvre,  which  weigh  no  less  than  35,000  kilogrammes 
each,  and  had  to  be  brought  from  Khorsabad  to  the  Tigris,  on 
»*normous  chariots  drawn  by  a  team  of  six  hundred  men. 

E 


50  ASSYBIAN  SCULPTURE. 

to  the  site  of  Nineveh,  where  he  found  a  palace, 
supposed  to  be  that  of  Sennacherib  himself,  far 
larger  and  richer  in  art  objects  than  that  of  Khor- 
sabad.*  He  then  proceeded  to  Karamles  and  to 
Kalab-Shergat,  so  that  the  British  Museum  in  its 
turn  received  many  precious  relics  of  Assyrian 
civilization.  Since  then  excavations  have  been 
carried  on  simultaneously  by  France  and  England, 
and  the  interesting  results  are  divided  between 
London  and  Paris.  We  must  own  that  the  British 
Museum  may  justly  pride  itself  on  possessing  a 
larger,  more  varied,  and  more  choice  collection 
than  the  Louvre — a  collection  which  offers  a  wide 
field  for  archaeological  discovery  and  study,  and 
must  challenge  the  surprise  and  admiration  of  every 
artist ;  but  at  the  same  time,  the  inferiority  in  num- 
ber, variety,  and  excellence  of  workmanship  of  the 
relics  in  the  Louvre,  is  in  a  manner  atoned  for  by 
the  paramount  importance  of  some  of  the  single 
monuments  in  the  French  museum. 

In   the   first  rank  are  the  four  immense   colossi 
from  Khorsabad,  the  height  of  which  exceeds  four 

*  In  the  subterranean  palace  of  Koyunjik,  Mr.  Layard  explored 
sixly-one  rooms,  all  covered  with  sculptured  slabs,  which  form  a 
series  of  sculptures  about  two  English  miles  long  ;  and  Mr.  Hormuzd 
Rassam,  who  succeeded  him  as  director  of  these  excavations,  dis- 
covered other  rooms,  better  preserved  and  elegantly  furnished  with 
alabaster  tables,  which  were  destined  for  the  British  Museum. 


JSS  YRIA  N  SCULP  TUIlE. 


51 


metres.  Of  equal  size  and  symmetrical  with  each 
other  on  opposite  sides,  pairs  of  them  formed  the 
front  pilasters  or  frames  of  one  of  the  doors  of  the 
palace.     In   front   they  have   a   mans    head,    with 


Fig. 


long:  hair,  and  a  beard  curled  and  arranged  in  a 
marvellous  manner,  and  wearing  a  double  row  of 
horns,    and    a    dotted    mitre  or  tiara    surmounted 


62  ASSmiAy  SCULPTURE. 

by  feathers, — placed  on  the  chest  and  legs  of  a  bull. 
On   the   inner  side,  the  right  of  one,  the  left  of  the 
other,  these  colossi  have  bulls'  bodies  with  the  hair 
on  the  flanks  and  of  the  tail  curled  like  the  beard  ; 
and,  as    in   the   Chimaera  of   Lycia,    bearing    long 
wings    upon    the    shoulders.      Two    other    winged 
bulls    with    human    faces,  exactly  like    those   just 
described,   only    rather  shorter,  were   placed  at   a 
right  angle,   head  to   head,   to   form   the   external 
decoration   of  the  door.     As  other  doors  opening 
in  the  fagade  of  the  building  had  similar  ornaments, 
the  backs   and  wings  of  the  bulls  almost  touched 
each  other.     Between  them,   and    consequently  at 
an  equal  distance  from  each  door,  there  was  a  high 
and  deep  niche  cut  out  of  the  wall,  which  supported 
one  of  the  two  other  colossi  brought  to  the  Louvre, 
those  gigantic  men  holding  a  sort  of  rounded  club 
in  the  right  hand,  and  strangling  a  lion,  which  is 
defending  itself  with  its  claws,  under  the  left  arm. 
This   lion,   instead  of  the  ordinary  length  of  five 
metres,  is   no  larger  than  a   small  dog.     All    the 
colossi,  men  and  bulls,  are  of  alabaster.     The  sym- 
bolical meaning  of  the  giant  with  the  club  is  not 
vet  entirely  made  out,  but  it  is.  no  doubt,  a  penson- 
ification  of  strength,   perhaps    the  Assyrian    Her- 
cules.    The  man-bull  was  evidently  the  Assyrian 
symbolic  image  of  the  king,  whose  name  occurs  in 


ASS rn IAN  scriPTUiU':.  53 

the  legend  inscribed  between  the  animal's  legs ; 
and  it  signified  intelligence  combined  with  force, 
just  as  the  sphinx,  or  man-lion,  a  type  of  the  same 
things,  was  to  the  Egyptians  the  image  of  the 
Pharaoh  whose  name  is  decided  by  the  inscriptions 
on  the  body  and  at  the  base.* 

At  London,  as  in  Paris,  relics  of  Assyrian  art 
consist  almost  entirely  of  bas-reliefs  sculptured  on 
tablets  or  grey  alabaster  slabs,  which  were  used  to 
cover  the  walls  of  clay  bricks.  These  reliefs  are 
very  low  and  flat,  in  fact,  scarcely  raised  at  all ; 
they  are  finely  carved  and  carefully  polished,  and 
the  design  would  be  truly  beautiful,  pure,  and 
severe,  if  the  eyes  and  shoulders  were  not  almost 
always  both  seen  in  profile  figures,  and  if  the  shape 
of  the  hands  and  legs  were  not  merely  conven- 
tional.! 

But  we  must  own  that  the  features  and  muscles 
are   often  so  well  brought  out  as  to  express  cha- 


*  At  Nimroud  and  Koyuiijik,  lions  with  a  human  head  have  l^een 
found,  which  exrcdy  resemble  the  sphinxes  of  Egypt  ;  only  they 
have  the  Assyrian  tiara  on  the  head,  instead  of  the  Egyptian  cla/t. 

+  It  has  been  conjectured  that  these  tw»  eyes  in  a  profde  have  a 
typical  meaning,  and  may  signify  that  the  god  or  king  could  see  on 
every  side  at  once  ;  but  is  it  not  more  reasonable  to  ascribe  them  to 
convention  and  the  inexperience  of  the  artist  ?  We  must  also  bear 
in  mind  the  undeniable  physical  fact,  that  in  the  eastern  races,  whose 
faces  are  far  rounder  than  those  of  Europeans,  the  eye  is  never  seen 
in  profile  in  the  same  clear  and  marked  manner  as  with  us. 


54  ASSYRIAN  SCULPTURE. 

racter,  and  that  the  compositions  on  these  Assyrian 
tablets  are  more  varied  and  fuller  of  movement  and 
life  than  the  hieratic  sculptures  of  Egypt.  Some 
are  of  opinion,  we  ourselves  amongst  others,  that 
the  exaggeration  of  physical  activity  and  of  expres- 
sive gestures  marks  a  very  advanced  state  of  art, 
or  rather  a  decadence  from  a  superior  style  like 
that  of  the  19th  dynasty  in  Egypt.  New  dis- 
coveries are  foretold  which  will  prove  this  theory, 
and  bring  to  light  earlier  and  more  crude  speci- 
mens of  Assyrian  art.  Let  us  become  prophets 
also,  and  hope  that  it  may  be  so. 

The  Assyrian  tablets  must  have  been  pictorial 
annals,  stone  chapters  of  history  commemorating 
the  chief  events  of  the  history  of  the  Assyrian 
people,  or,  rather,  of  their  kings.  The  king  (what 
king  none  know  with  any  certitude)*  appears  again 
and  again  in  all  these  sculptured  pictures.  He  is 
easily  recognised  because  he  is  always  followed  by 
an  umbrella-bearer,  a  fly-flapper,  or  by  musicians  ; 
and  because  he  wears  the  tiara,  and  the  Ferouher, 
or  winged  image  of  divinity,  hovers  above  his  head. 
In  one  of  these  representations  of  the  king  wearing 

*  It  is  however  agreed  that  this  figure  represents  one  of  the 
Assyrian  monarchs  alluded  to  in  the  Scriptures  (the  book  of  Kings, 
Isaiah,  Ezra,  &c.),  such  as  Sargon,  Sennacherib,  Assur-Akh-Bal, 
Nebuchadnezzar  (or  rather  Naboucojidourroitssour,  "The  god 
Nabou  protect  my  family  !"). 


ASSTBJAN  SCULPTURE.  55 

the  tiara,  the  figure  is  entirely  painted  on  alabaster 
in  different  colours.  The  soles  of  the  king's  san- 
dals were  red.  The  wearers  of  the  fed  Jiccls  of 
Versailles  did  not  guess  how  very  old  was  this  neiv 
fashion. 

The  subjects  of  these  bas-reliefs  are  very  varied, 
very  complicated,  uniting  in  one  frame,  men,  ani- 
mals, plants,  and  buildings  ;  in  fact,  forming  true 
historical  pictures.  Of  course,  battles  and  sieges 
abound.  In  the  first  we  generally  see  the  king  on 
his  war  chariot,  charges  of  cav^alry,  archers  launch- 
ing their  arrows,  prisoners  led  along  with  their 
hands  bound,  corpses  devoured  by  eagles  and  vul- 
tures. In  the  second,  the  besieged  town  is  gene- 
rally surrounded  by  water,  and  has  a  double  or 
triple  tier  of  walls  with  battlements ;  and  it  is 
attacked  by  rolling  towers  or  battering  rams,  the . 
besieged  pouring  fire  upon  their  enemies,  and  en- 
deavouring to  avert  the  blows  of  the  engines  by 
entangling  them  in  chains.  When  a  town  is  taken, 
we  see  women  flying  in  chariots  drawn  by  young 
oxen,  or  a  man  escaping  on  a  camel.  These  repre- 
sentations of  battles  and  sieges  give  us  a  clear  and 
complete  idea  of  the  mode  of  warfare  in  this  remote 
age  ;  and  bearing  in  mind  that  these  alabaster  slabs 
are  about  three  thousand  years  old,  it  is  surprising 
how  little  the  art  of  war  changed  until  the  intro- 


56  ASSYRIAN  SCULPTUBE. 

duction  of  gunpowder.  Almost  everywhere,  and 
in  almost  every  age  we  find  the  same  weapons,  the 
same  operations  of  attack  and  defence.  Amongst 
the  bas-reliefs  of  London,  the  best  for  study,  as 
being  fuller  of  movement  and  variety,  are  the  Sie^e 
of  a  town  by  a  king,  supposed  to  be  Assur-Akh- 
Bal  I.  ;  a  battle  of  Assur-Akh-Bal  III.  against  the 
Susians  ;  the  triumph  of  this  king  after  victory;  and 
the  Erection  of  a  colossal  bull  by  a  gang  of  slaves 
under  the  orders  of  Sennacherib. 

The  chase  of  the  lion  or  the  wild  bull,  which 
were  hunted  with  spears  and  arrows,  is  also  often 
the  subject  of  bas-reliefs.  The  king  is  always  pre- 
sent in  his  chariot,  receiving  the  victims  slain  ; 
indeed,  the  king  is  everywhere.  Sometimes  we 
have  only  his  full-sized  or  half-length  portrait ; 
sometimes  he  is  directing  the  march  of  troops  across 
the  mountains  or  through  the  woods  ;  sometimes 
he  is  receiving  ambassadors  and  offering  them 
peace,  holding  two  arrows  in  his  hand  ;  or  he  is 
celebrating  some  religious  rite  before  the  sacred 
tree  ;  or  he  is  crossing  a  river,  still  in  his  chariot, 
on  a  boat  with  a  helm,  manned  by  four  rowers  and 
a  pilot,  around  which  swim  horses  and  fishes.  This 
boat  is  guided  through  the  water  by  a  man  who 
swims  before  it,  kept  afloat  by  an  inflated  leather 
bottle.     Even  now  the  rafts  used  on  the  Tigris  and 


ASSYRIAN  SCULP  TUBE  57 

Euphrates  are  balanced  by  leather  bottles  filled 
with  air.  We  have  already  remarked  that  the 
canoes  used  on  the  Nile  at  the  present  time  exactly 
resemble  those  found  in  the  sepulchral  chambers  ; 
probably  the  gondolas  of  the  lagoons  of  Venice  will 
be  retained  for  centuries.  One  of  the  tablets  in 
the  Louvre  is,  without  doubt,  the  account  and 
memorial  of  an  expedition  by  river  or  by  sea.  In 
water  without  perspective,  we  see  amongst  the 
fishes  several  boats  one  above  the  other,  with  prows 
in  the  shape  of  horses'  heads,  and  half-open  sides, 
showing  the  rowers  bending  over  their  oars.  Some 
of  these  vessels  are  loaded  with  the  trunks  ot  trees, 
which  explains  the  answer  of  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre, 
to  Solomon,  when  he  was  asked  for  some  cedar 
wood  for  the  building  of  the  temple  :  "  My  servants 
shall  bring  them  down  from  Lebanon  unto  the  sea, 
and  I  will  convey  them  by  sea  in  floats  unto  the 
place  that  thou  shall  appoint  me"  (i  Kings  v.  6-9). 
Another,  more  true  to  life  and  better  executed, 
represents  several  led  horses.  We  are  told  by 
Xenophon  (Cyropaedia  iii.  ch.  5)  that  their  horses 
were  so  wild  and  spirited  that  the  Assyrians  were 
obliged  always  to  keep  them  bound.  Faithfully 
copied  from  nature,  these  bas-reliefs  have  all  the 
delicacy  of  limb  and  graceful  vigour  of  the  Arab 
horses  ;  and,  combined  with  the  testimony  of  the 


58  ASSYIiJAN  SCULPTURE. 

book  of  Job,  these  monuments  incontestably  prove 
that  this  race  has  been  perpetuated  to  our  own 
day,  without  alteration  or  the  admixture  of  alien 
blood,  as  the  primitive  and  perfect  type  of  that 
beautiful  and  useful  servant,  justly  called  by  Bufifon, 
"  man's  noblest  conquest."  From  another  slab  we 
learn  that  horses,  oxen,  and  dromedaries  were  not 
the  only  animals  employed  in  war,  or  as  beasts  of 
burden  by  the  Assyrians.  We  see  a  team  of  men, 
prisoners,  serfs,  or  subjects,  yoked  in  pairs  to  the 
pole  of  a  car.  It  was  these  human  teams  which 
diew  the  alabaster  from  the  quarr}-,  and  took  the 
colossal  images  of  the  kings  and  gods  to  the  gates 
of  the  palace. 

In  some  of  the  Assyrian  marbles  the  kings  are 
exchanged  for  divinities.  The  latter  generally 
wear  a  conical  cap  adorned  with  two  or  three  horns, 
and  in  their  hands  they  hold  different  symbols  :  an 
ear  of  bearded  wheat,  a  fir-cone,  a  reed  basket,  or 
a  flowering  tree.  At  the  Louvre  we  have  a  curious 
personification  of  the  god  (probably  Baal  or  Nes- 
roch)  with  four  large  outspread  wings,  like  the 
Egyptian  Neith  or  Minerva,  the  cherubims  of  the 
temple  of  Solomon,  the  Proserpine  (Persephone)  of 
paganism  and  the  divinities  of  ancient  Etruria, 
A/>//(  (Apollo),  Hcrcla  (^Hercules),  Tinia  (Bacchus), 
Thalna  (Juno). 


ASSYB/AN  SCULPTURE.  59 

We  see  that  in  giving  this  emblem  to  the  mes- 
sengers of  the  Most  High,  the  old  legends  of  the 
first  Christian  era  introduced  no  more  of  a  novelty 
than  the  marquises  of  the  CEil-dc-Boeuf  when  they 
put  red  heels  to  their  shoes. 

At  the  British  Museum  there  are  but  two  Assyrian 
objects  which  are  neither  in  the  form  of  tablets  nor 
of  slabs.  One  is  a  statue  found  at  Kalah-Shergat, 
the  only  one  as  >  et  discovered  in  the  excavations 
of  Assyrian  towns.  It  is  headless  and  much 
damaged  ;  it  represented  a  king  on  a  throne,  but  it 
is  of  no  interest  to  the  artist  or  archaeologist  except 
from  its  own  insignificance.  The  other,  which  is  far 
more  important,  is  a  small  obelisk  of  blackish  marble, 
of  about  two  metres  high,  cut  into  four  sides,  and 
decreasing  in  size  towards  the  top.  In  addition  to 
ten  lines  of  cuneiform  writing,  it  has  twenty  bas- 
reliefs,  with  a  great  many  figures  of  animals,  lions, 
rhinoceroses,  monkeys,  horses,  &c.,  led  by  men 
carrying  presents.  It  must  have  been  a  trophy  of 
victory  and  conquest,  representing  offerings  brought 
to  the  king  by  the  subject  people.  And  as  the 
intention  is  so  very  clear,  the  little  obelisk  oi 
Kalah-Shergat  may,  in  the  hands  of  a  future 
Champollion,  become  a  guide  to  the  deciphering  of 
the  hieroglyphics  of  the  cuneiform  character.* 

*  Dr.  Hincks  already  asserts  that  the  two  hundred  and  ten  lines  of 


GO  ASS  FBI  AN  SCULPT  CUE. 

The  English  and  French  museums  cjntaui  many 
tiles  or  bricks  with  inscriptions  in  this  cuneiform 
writing  (the  letters  of  which  are  shaped  like  the 
heads  of  nails),  called  Keilschrift  by  the  Germans, 
and  arroiv-headed  character  by  the  English. 

Throu2[h  the  efforts  which  have  been  mads  since 
the  time  of  the  traveller  Chardin,  by  Niebuhr  the 
Dane,  Grotefead,  Rask,  Lassen,  E.  Burnouf,  by 
Colonel  Rawlinson  and  Dr.  Hincks  in  England, 
and  by  MM.  Jules  Oppert  and  Joachim  Menant 
at  the  same  time  in  France,  modern  science  will. 
perhaps,  at  last  discover  the  meaning .  of  this 
writing,  and  learn  to  decipher  it  as  it  has  the  hiero- 
glyphics of  Egypt. 

We  will  conclude  by  noticing  the  clear  proofs  in 
the  Louvre  that  Assyrian  civilization  had  a  great 
and  direct  influence  upon  that  of  the  Greeks.  These 
proofs  are,  so  to  speak,  written  on  two  silver  gilt 
cups,  one  of  which  is  ornamented  with  a  sunken 
frieze,  and  the  other  by  subjects  in  relief.  These 
cups  were  found  in  the  ruins  of  the  ancient  Citium, 
a  town  of  the  island  of  Cyprus.     Their  Assyrian 


the  Assyrian  writing  contain  the  royal  annals  during  a  period  ot 
thirty-one  years,  and  that  amongst  the  tributaries  of  the  king  of 
Assyria  are  enumerated  successively  :  Jehu,  king  of  .Samaria  (called 
by  Racine  in  Athalit  the  proud  Jehu),  and  Hazael,  who  was  made 
king  of  the  same  country  by  the  prophet  Elisha,  about  SS5  B.C. 


ASSYBJAN  SCULPTURE.  61 

origin  is  quite  evident.  They  are  of  the  same 
shape  as  those  held  by  the  king  of  Assyria  in  the 
bas-reliefs  of  Khorsabad  and  Nimrod.  as  well  as  of 
the  bronze  cups  found  in  those  palaces  ;  besides 
which,  the  subjects  of  the  friezes  of  the  cups  and 
those  of  the  bas-reliefs  are  identical,  the  symbols 
and  the  details  are  the  same.  When  we  look  at 
these  Asiatic  cups,  we  can  fancy  what  that  vase  of 
engraved  silver  was  like,  which  Achilles  proposed 
as  a  prize  at  the  race  at  the  funeral  of  Patroclus, 
the  vase  brought  by  sea  by  the  Phoenicians  to 
Troas,  and  which  was  of  exceeding  beaut)\  (Iliad, 
Book  xxiii.) 

We  understand  also  how  merchants  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon  brought  similar  vases  and  other  products  of 
Assyrian  art,  not  only  to  the  Archipelago  and  the 
continent  of  Greece,  but  even  as  far  as  Sicily  and 
Central  Italy,  where  flourished  the  art  of  the  Etrus- 
cans, who  were  as  renowned  for  their  works  in 
bronze  as  for  those  in  keramic  art. 


62 


CHAPTER  III. 

ETRUSCAN  SCULPTURE. 

WE  must  now  say  a  (ew  words  on  Etruscan 
sculpture  before  passing  to  Greece. 
Etruria,  a  near  neighbour  of  our  own,  situated  at 
the  gate  of  Gaul,  can  also  pride  itself  on  a  primi- 
tive civilization,  which  although  at  first  purely- 
national,  except  for  a  slight  Asiatic  element,  sub- 
sequently fell  under  Greek  influence,  and  was 
finally  absorbed  into  that  of  Rome,  after  giving  to 
it  its  creed  and  superstitions,  together  with  the 
rudiments  of  every  art  and  industry.  Pliny  asserts 
this  in  twenty  passages.  The  most  important 
national  art  of  Etruria,  was  every  kind  of  metal 
work,  the  chasing  of  jewels  of  gold  and  silver,  the 
casting  of  bronze  statues,  the  manufacture  of 
armour,  altars,  tripods,  and  all  articles  made  with 
the  hammer.  There  are  three  of  great  value  in 
the  [/^si  at  Florence  ;  the  little  statue  called 
Idolino,     wliich     is     probably     a     Mercury  ;     the 


ETRUSCAN  SCULPTURE. 


03 


ChimcBra,  with  a  lion's  head  on  the  shoulders,  a 
goat's  head  on  the  back,  and  a  dragon's  head  at  the 
end  of  the  tail  ;  and  lastly,  the  beautiful  and  cele- 
brated statue  of  a  magistrate  haranguing  the  people, 


Fig.  6. — Statue  of  the  Infant  Apollo  with  a  Duck. 
(Museum  of  Antiquities,  Paris.) 

which  is  called  the  Orator.  We  find  many  other 
relics  of  this  great  industry  in  most  of  the  museums, 
the  Louvre  amongst   others,   but    they   are   gene- 


64  ETRUSCAN  SCULPTURE. 

rally  mixed  with  the  Grecian  and  Roman  bronzes. 
The  Campana  collection,  recently  obtained,  has, 
however,  supplied  us  with  interesting  specimens  of 
this  hitherto  little  known  Etruscan  art.  The 
greater  number  are  mere  terra-cottas,  yet  they 
are  much  better  preserved  than  the  marbles  and 
bronzes,  and  give  a  very  fair  notion  of  what  the 
sculpture  of  ancient  Etruria  was  before  the  Roman 
conquest  and  subjugation.  There  are  a  great  many 
busts,  most  of  them  of  divinities  wearing  crowns 
and  diadems.  But  of  all  these  monuments  of 
plastic  art,  the  one  which  throws  most  light  on  the 
confused  and  mysterious  history  of  the  Etruscan 
people,  is  certainly  the  ornamented  sepulchre  called 
the  Lydian  tomb.  On  a  funeral  couch  repose  two 
half-recumbent  figures,  one  of  a  man,  the  other 
of  a  woman,  in  Asiatic  costume,  which  circum- 
stance must  have  given  the  name  to  the  tomb,  as 
it  is  evidently  Etruscan.  It  is  agreed  that  this 
precious  monument  is  earlier  than  the  ruin  of  Coere 
(the  more  ancient  Agylla,  the  modern  Cervetri), 
that  is  to  say,  that  it  belongs  to  the  fourth  century 
before  the  Christian  era. 

But  the  term  Etruscan  art  will  probably  remind 
very  many  readers  of  those  carved  and  painted 
vases  which  it  has  long  been  the  fashion  to  call 
Etruscan.      It  is,  however,  a  mistake  to  apply  this 


ETRUSCAN  SCULPTURE.  f:r> 

term  to  the  greater  number  of  objects  indicated  by 
it.  It  is  true  that  the  twelve  patriarchal  states  of 
the  ancient  Etruscan  league  extended  from  the 
Magra  to  the  Vulturnus,  from  Verona  to  Capua. 
But  they  formed  a  mere  confederacy  of  cities  ; 
Etruria,  properly  so  called,  did  not  exceed  the 
limits  of  Tuscany  itself.  Now  it  was  to  the  south 
of  Rome,  in  that  part  of  Magna  Graecia  called 
Apulia  (the  modern  Puglia),  that  the  numerous 
and  beautiful  so-called  Etruscan  vases  were  manu- 
factured, which  are  really  all  of  Hellenic  origin. 
We  only  allude  to  them  here  on  account  of  their 
name. 

It  is  also  easy  to  class  these  valuable  products  of 
early  Italian  industry  according  to  their  dates  and 
places  of  manufacture.  Such  are  their  striking 
peculiarities,  that  their  age  and  source  may  be 
decided  at  a  glance.  The  earliest,  those  from 
Etruria  proper,  chiefly  found  at  Cervetri  {Caere, 
Agylla),  are  all  black,  and  either  without  orna- 
ments or  with  clumsy  figures  in  relief  of  the  same 
colour.  Others,  also  Etruscan,  although  called 
Egyptian  and  Phcenician  —  eastern  would  be  a 
better  term  —  have  nearly  white  grounds,  with 
figures  of  men  and  animals  painted  in  dark  red. 
The  next  in  date  in  the  history  of  keramic  art  are 
those  vases  called  primitive,  with  pale  grounds  and 

F 


60  ETJiUSCAN  SCULPTURE. 

no  ornaments,  but  zones  or  horizontal  divisions 
crossed  by  concentric  semicircles.  Vases  of  a  date 
posterior  to  that  of  the  latest  already  enumerated 
have  been  found  in  a  more  southern  neighbourhood  : 
round  Rome,  at  Vulci,  Canino,  and  in  the  Basilicata. 
They  have  red  or  orange  grounds,  with  figures  of 
men  only,  painted  black.  All  the  subjects  of  these 
reliefs  and  paintings  are  mythological,  and  are 
chiefly  borrowed  from  the  worship  of  Bacchus,  the 
polymorphous  and  polynomial  god  (of  many 
forms  and  many  names). 

To  this  age  and  country  belong  the  rhytons,  or 
drinking  cups  shaped  in  imitation  of  the  heads  of 
different  animals  ;  and,  lastly,  later  still  and 
farther  south  in  ancient  Apulia,  were  fabricated 
the  celebrated  vases  of  Nola,  so  called  because 
they  were  found  in  large  numbers  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  that  city  of  the  Campagna,  which  was 
defended  by  Marcellus  against  Hannibal,  in  which 
Augustus  died,  and  St.  Paulinus  is  said  to  have  in- 
vented bells  {campajicB).  Unlike  those  of  the  agro 
romano,  the  vases  of  Nola  have  the  figures  in  brick 
or  antique  «'ed  {rosso  antico),  on  a  clear  and  shining 
jet  black  ground.  They  surpass  all  others  in 
elegance  and  variety  of  form,  in  choiceness  of 
subject,  beauty  of  design,  in  taste,  spirit,  grace,  and 
ease  ;  in  fact,  they  fulfil  the  true  requirements  of 


ETRUSCAN  SCULPTURE.  67 

art.  Their  perfection  was  so  great  th.l  they  soon 
ceased  to  be  regarded  as  mere  doivje.'^tic  utensils, 
and  became  decorative  luxuries  like  statues  and 
pictures.  It  is  remarkable  that  at  first  the  ancients 
made  all  their  vessels  for  household  use  in  clay  ; 
the  jars  or  amphorcB,  called  ■^€pa/io<;  or  iriOo'i  by  the 
Greeks,  for  instance,  in  which  they  kept  wine,  oil, 
honey,  drinking  water,  &c. ;  even  the  tub  of  Diogenes 
was  only  a  large  earthenware  pot. 

These  domestic  vases  were  improved  upon  until 
their  form  and  the  ornaments  on  them  attained  to 
such  surpassing  beauty  as  to  be  true  art-objects. 
In  them  we  can  mark  the  unconscious  development 
of  that  ingenious  theory  which  required  the  same 
harmony  in  the  proportions  of  a  vase  or  building  as 
is  the  rule  in  the  human  limbs  ;  the  symmetry  of 
the  height  and  breadth  of  the  designs  was  regulated 
by  one  of  nature's  laws  ;  it  was  thought  that  this 
symmetry  produced  beauty  of  form,  and  that  an 
elegant  vase  might  be  compared  to  a  young  girl 
risine  with  her  arms  raised  to  her  head. 

It  is  their  form  alone  which  connects  these  vases 
with  our  subject,  their  ornaments  belong  to  paint- 
ing- It  will  suffice  to  state  that  there  are  large  and 
choice  collections  of  them  in  the  chief  museums  in 
London,  Paris,  St.  Petersburg,  and  Naples,  which 
last  contains  no  less  than  three  thousand. 


e,S  E  TBI' SCAN  SCULP  TUBE. 

For  the  same  reason,  on  account  of  their  form, 
\vc  may  notice  the  vetri  aiitichi,  glass  objects  pre- 
served from  antiquity.  If  there  were  still  (for  there 
have  been)  scholars  who  denied  that  glass  was 
known  to  the  ancients — although  it  is  spoken  of  by 
Job  and  in  the  Proverbs,  and  Pliny  has  alluded  to 
its  fortunate  discovery  by  the  Phoenicians,  and  to 
the  skill  of  the  Egyptians  in  its  fabrication — they 
could  not  but  own  their  mistake  before  the  glazed 
cabinets  of  the  Etruscan  museum  of  the  Louvre. 
St.  Thomas  could  no  longer  doubt,  and  subterfuges 
would  fail  even  Escobar.  They  would  be  com- 
pelled to  acknowledge  that  the  moderns  fall  short 
of  the  ancients  in  their  facility  in  this  industry. 
From  these  vctri  anticlii  we  can  learn  the  early 
forms  and  the  use  of  ancient  glass  objects.  On  the 
one  hand,  we  have  vases  of  every  kind,  small 
amphorae,  flagons,  foot-goblets,  and  goblets  with 
handles,  lacrymatories,  &c.  ;  on  the  other,  white, 
tinted,  coloured,  chased,  and  enamelled  glasses. 
Most  of  them  having  been  buried  in  the  ground  for 
centuries,  are  still  stained  with  the  thin  coating  or 
film  produced  by  mineral  decomposition,  called 
patina  by  the  Italians,  which  is  also  found  on 
marbles  which  have  been  long  underground.  On 
glass  it  produces  beautiful  golden  and  riilver  tints, 
or  colours  which  change  and  blend  like  those  of  a 


ETRUSCAN  SCULPTURE.  69 

rainbow.  But  it  tarnishes  enamels  :  they  require 
to  be  cleaned  by  a  very  delicate  process.  Many 
ancient  statues  were  damaged  by  being  merely 
scraped  before  the  art  of  washing  them  was  dis- 
covered. 

We  must,  however,  acknowledge  that  the  ancients 
did  not  turn  this  most  useful  discovery  to  such 
practical  advantage  as  we  do.  In  windows  glass 
admits  external  light  whilst  retaining  the  internal 
heat  of  our  dwellings  ;  in  mirrors  it  reflects  our 
own  images  ;  in  spectacles  it  lengthens  the  range 
of  vision  of  the  short-sighted,  and  makes  that 
of  the  far-sighted  clear ;  and  in  the  microscopes 
of  the  physiologists,  and  the  telescopes  of  the 
astronomer,  it  opens  to  us  the  marvels  of  infinite 
littleness  and  of  infinite  grandeur. 


70 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GRECIAN    SCULPTURE. 

WHAT  Pliny  says  of  painting — De  pictur<B 
initiis  imerta — is  equally  true  of  sculpture. 
in  the  history  of  Assyrian  and  Egyptian  art  we 
cannot  go  back  to  the  beginning  ;  we  have  only 
found  monuments  of  a  settled,  in  fact,  of  an 
advanced  civilization,  of  which  they  are  alike  the 
visible  proofs  and  the  sacred  relics.  We  have 
equally  decisive  evidence  that  the  art  of  the  east 
exercised  great  influence  over  the  early  civilization 
of  Greece  ;  indeed,  although  the  ancient  Greeks 
claimed,  and  were  too  long  believed,  to  have 
invented  everything,  there  is  no  doubt  that  Grecian 
art  began  with  imitation.  But,  at  the  same  time, 
the  Greeks  earned  eternal  glory,  and  became 
worthy  of  our  unchanging  admiration  and  gratitude, 
by  at  once  freeing  themselves  from  the  spirit  of 
convention  and  routine  ;  they  soon  burst  the  chains 
of  dogmatic  and  sacerdotal  laws,  and  inaugurated 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  71 

a  free,  original,  and  individual  art.  "  Unlike  the 
other  nations  of  antiquity,"  says  M.  Beule,  with 
equal  truth  and  elegance,  "  they  took  lessons  only  to 
react  upon  their  masters,  they  adopted  their  models, 
surpassed,  rejected  them,  to  conceive  others  of  in- 
comparable beauty.  They  did  not  invent  art,  they 
invented  beauty.  The  artists  of  Egypt  and  Assyria 
could  produce  deep,  religious,  and  striking  impres- 
sions ;  they  never  attained  to  thosesuperior  principles 
which  exalt  human  ideas  into  divine  types,  and 
enable  man  to  contemplate  beauty  face  to  face. 

No  doubt  art  in  Greece,  as  elsewhere,  was 
connected  with  the  faith  of  the  country  ;  religion 
aided  its  birth  and  its  development ;  it  was  alike  its 
support  and  its  controller.  Fortunately  the  religion 
of  the  Greeks  was  never  narrow,  jealous,  or  bigoted. 
It  had  no  colleges  of  priests,  no  theology  fixed  by 
a  symbol  of  faith,  no  immutable  and  prescribed 
creed.  Daughter  of  imagination  and  mother  of 
poetry,  religion  from  the  first  imbued  art,  her  other 
child,  with  the  spirit  of  independence  and  with  her 
own  liberty  of  genius.  "  Mythology,"  adds  M.  Beule, 
"that  immense  and  magnificent  tissue  of  fiction 
which  pervades  the  entire  universe,  like  a  net-work 
of  gold  and  light,  ...  is  the  most  brilliant  creation 
of  the  human  intellect.  Who  made  it?  Everyone 
and  no  one  :  it  is  the  work  of  a  people." 


72  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

It  was  the  same  with  art.  Grecian  art  only 
borrowed  what  was  technical  and  mechanical  ;  and 
when  free  to  wing  its  flight  towards  the  lofty 
regions  of  the  sublime  and  beautiful,  it  was  un- 
checked by  any  religious  or  political  barrier. 
Daedalus  was  able  to  shake  off  Egyptian  traditions 
with  impunity  ;  he  could  free  the  legs  and  arms  of 
statues  from  their  bodies  ;  he  could  impart  move- 
ment and  life  to  them,  without  incurring  the  censure 
of  a  priest  or  the  anger  of  a  king.  Instead  of  this, 
his  bold  and  happy  innovations  excited  the  admi- 
ration of  all  Greece  and  the  envy  of  every  rival. 
With  the  Greeks  enthusiasm  was  piety.  "  It  was 
the  longing  for  clearness,"  says  M.  Taine,  "  the 
perception  of  proportion,  the  hatred  of  the  clumsy 
and  outrageous,  the  taste  for  marked  and  distinct 
outlines,  which  led  the  Greeks  to  embody  their 
conceptions  in  a  form  easily  understood  by  the 
senses  and  the  imagination,  and  to  produce  works 
intelligible  to  every  race  in  every  age — works  which, 
being  human,  may  be  eternal." 

However,  free  as  it  subsequently  became,  even 
Grecian  art  "  was  for  a  long  time  debased  ;  poetry 
was  already  at  its  zenith  when  it  scarcely  existed. 
In  fact,  poetry  is  but  a  flight  of  fancy  with 
language  ready  to  express  it.  Art  had  to  struggle 
with  and  subdue  materials,  and  this  process  often 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  73 

required  centuries.  At  first,  then,  sculpture  was 
humble,  embarrassed,  and  timid  ;  it  dared  not  leave 
the  certain  to  attempt  the  unknown  ;  it  could  take 
no  step  in  advance  without  first  looking  back  ;  but 
as  it  sfrew,  it  left  behind  it  an  indestructible  chain, 
the  chain  of  tradition,  .  .  .  which  finds  strength 
for  the  future  in  respect  for  the  past.  Grecian 
sculpture  advanced  slowly,  because  it  sought  not 
novelty  but  progress.     The  aim  of  each  school  was 

to  copy  the  master,  to  excel  him  if  possible 

To  obtain  certainty  by  repeated  trials,  to  pause 
rather  than  to  err,  to  soften  by  shading  without 
abrupt  transition.  ...  On  art  itself,  not  on  religion, 
rests  the  blame,  .  .  .  if  it  remained  stationary  long; 
but  condemnation  is  misplaced  ;  in  this  slo.v  but 
lofty  education  we  must  recognise  the  source  of 
the  grandeur  and  admirable  principles  of  Grecian 
art.  Thus,"  continues  M.  Beule,  "we  find  the  true 
theory  of  liberty  applied  to  the  arts.  In  the  name 
of  Grecian  art  w^e  claim  not  only  that  outward 
liberty  which  depends  on  the  weakness  of  men 
and  the  freaks  of  fortune,  but  the  true  freedom 
which  fears  no  attacks,  which  is  more  than  liberty 
— independence.  Independence  was  the  soul  of 
Grecian  art." 

It  would  be  impossible  now  to  write  the  history 
of  the  schools  of  Greece  from  the  time  when  Cupid 


74  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

was  represented  by  a  stone  at  Thespiae  ;  Juno  by  a 
column  at  Argos  ;  Castor  and  Pollux  at  Sparta,  by 
two    beams    joined    by    a    cross-bar    in    token    of 
fraternity — to  the   age  of  Pericles.     A   very   brief 
summary  will  suffice.     The   first  statues,  made  of 
wood,  are  attributed  to  Daedalus,  whom  the  Greeks 
claim  as  a  fellow-citizen,  but  who  was  probably  a 
native    of   Crete,    and    a    contemporary  of   Minos. 
Daedalus,  whose  name  means  industrious,  is  said  to 
have  invented  the  saw  and  the  plane,  and  to  have 
introduced  his  art  into  Sicily  and  Apulia.     Who  is 
this  all  but  fabulous  person  .'     Probably  a  myth,  to 
whom  all  early  inventions  are  attributed,  as  all  the 
great   national  poems  to   Homer.     We  only  know, 
that   even   in  the  time  of  the  traveller  Pausanius, 
there    existed    very    old    wooden    statues,    called 
Daedali,  in  which  movement  and  life  were  imitated, 
the  legs  being  separated  from  each  other  and  the 
arms  from  the  body.     In  the  Isle  of  Samos,  on  the 
coast  of  Asia,  between  the  years  570  and  525  B.C., 
a  family  of  artists  arose  to  whom  the  Greeks  gave 
the    name    of    stone   scrapers,    because    they    sub- 
stituted harder  and  more  durable  materials,  such 
as    stone    and    marble,    for   wood.      Their    names 
were  Rhoecus,    his    son,  Telecles,    and    his    grand- 
son, Theodorus.      To  them   is   also  attributed  the 
invention  of  the  plastic  art,  or  that   of  modelling 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  75 

clay,  of  engraving  on  metals  and  precious  stones, 
and  even  of  the  casting  of  bronze  statues.  The 
last-named  invention,  which  the  Samians  may  have 
borrowed  from  Egypt,  was  also  practised  by  the 
Etruscans  and  known  in  Sicily,  where  at  the  same 
epoch  the  sculptor  Perillus  made  the  celebrated 
brazen  bull  for  the  tyrant  Phalaris,  in  which  he 
burnt  his  enemies  alive.  Tradition  says  that 
Theodorus  engraved  the  famous  ring  which  Poly- 
crates  threw  into  the  sea,  to  change  his  too  constant 
ill  fortune  ;  that  he  recast  the  silver  krater  given  by 
Croesus  to  the  temple  of  Delphi ;  and  chased  the 
golden  vine  with  grapes  of  precious  stones,  found 
at  Sardis,  by  Cyrus,  on  the  throne  of  the  kings  of 
Persia. 

Glaucus  also,  to  whom  is  attributed  the  inven- 
tion of  the  art  of  smelting  and  soldering  iron,  was 
perhaps  an  inhabitant  of  Samos  or  of  Chios.  And 
we  know,  on  the  authority  of  Pliny,  that  these 
islands  can  boast  of  another  family  of  sculptors. 
First,  Melas,  then  his  son  Miciades,  his  grandson 
Anthermus,  who  mado  a  winged  Victory  for  Delos, 
and  the  sons  of  Anthermus,  Bupalus  and  Athenaeus, 
who  worked  together.  Bupalus  is  the  most  cele- 
brated of  this  generation  of  artists.  In  the  time 
of  Augustus,  many  of  his  works  were  collected  at 
Rome;    the    unaffected    simplicity   of  his    archaic 


76  GRECIAN  tiCUirTUBE. 

style  found  favour  with  the  Romans.  The  school 
cf  Chios  took  root  in  an  island  of  the  yEgean  Sea, 
near  Paros,  and,  laying  aside  the  wood  with  which 
Daedalus  was  content,  and  the  bronze  of  Theodorus, 
it  adopted  white  marble.  This  was  decided  pro- 
gress in  statuary— a  great  step  towards  perfection  ! 
In  carving  Parian  marble  the  Chiote  sculptors 
were  able  to  give  full  scope  to  the  vivacious,  pliant, 
elegant,  and  delicate  genius  of  Ionia,  which,  sub- 
sequently combining  with  the  more  sober,  vigorous, 
and  austere  talent  of  the  strong  Dorian  race,  pro- 
duced that  dualism  from  which  sprang  true  Grecian 

art. 

In  those  Ionian  islands  where  the  first  Greek 
artists  appeared,  the  first  poets  also  arose.  There 
were  born  the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey,  from  which 
sculptors  took  their  inspiration.  One  word  of 
Homer  or  of  Hesiod— Jupiter  with  the  powerful 
locks,  Venus  with  the  sweet  smile,  Juno  with  the 
beautiful  arms,  Diana,  the  fair-limbed  goddess — 
was  enough  to  fix  a  type,  and  make  it  traditional, 
without  interfering  with  the  independence  of  the 
artist,  for  a  symbol  is  not  a  dogma.  When  fleeing 
before  the  conquests  of  Cyrus  and  the  domination 
of  the  Persians,  the  Ionian  artists  spread  over  the 
continent  of  Greece,  they  introduced,  if  not  an 
absolutely  new  art — Corinth  had  already  produced 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  77 

the  ancient  colossal  statue  of  Jupiter  Olympius, 
and  the  celebrated  carved  chest  of  Kypselus,  two 
important  works  in  cast  metal — but  new  elements 
of  art,  a  new  style  and  new  materials.  Cretan 
artists  founded  the  school  of  Sicyonia.  A  neigh- 
bour of  Corinth,  and  far  inferior  to  that  town  in 
population  and  commercial  wealth,  Sicyonia  ex- 
celled her  in  the  arts.  There  the  Dorian  was  first 
blended  with  the  Ionian  genius.  "  The  schools  of 
Sicyonia,"  says  M.  Beule,  "  united  the  principles 
and  the  stability  of  the  one,  with  the  liberty  and 
grace  of  the  other."  Sicyonia,  like  Corinth,  had 
longr  had  her  metal-founders  and  carvers.  The 
Cretans,  Dipcenus  and  Skyllis,  introduced,  with  the 
employment  of  marble,  the  true  art  of  statuary. 
It  was  about  the  fifteenth  Olympiad,  in  Sicyonia 
itself,  that  Dipoenus  and  Skyllis  produced,  at  the 
cost  of  the  state,  the  four  statues  of  Apollo,  Arte- 
mis, Herakles,  and  Athene,  besides  other  gods,  for 
Ambrosia,  Cleonae,  Argos,  and  Tirynthus. 

Their  school  spread  throughout  Greece,  and  even 
to  the  Italian  Magna  Graecia,  for  the  sea,  instead 
of  separating,  united  the  Hellenic  races. 

Dameas,  of  Crotona,  who  made  for  the  temple 
of  Olympia  that  celebrated  bronze  statue  of  the 
athlete  Milo,  which  the  latter  carried  on  his  shoul- 
ders, was  the  pupil  of  Dipcenus  and  Skyllis.     Their 


78  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

lessons  also  formed  the  talents  of  Laphaes  of 
Phlius  (untis)  ;  Eucheir  of  Corinth,  Eutelidas,  Chy- 
sothemis,  and  Aristoniedon,  of  Argos,  who  after- 
wards educated  Ageladas,  the  master  of  Phidias, 
of  Polycletus,  and  of  Myron.  It  is  probable  that 
the  two  Cretan  sculptors  were  afterwards  sum- 
moned to  Athens ;  and  it  is  certain  that,  after 
being  under  the  direction  of  the  bronze-founder, 
Theodorus,  the  Spartan  school  was  developed  by 
the  instructions  of  disciples  of  Dipoenus  and  Skyllis 
—  Doryklidas,  Dontas,  Theokles,  Medon  —  who 
taught  them  to  carve  Parian  marble.  Sparta, 
which  cherished  the  old  Dorian  genius  in  all  its 
early  austerity,  and  rejected  painting  as  too  effemi- 
nate an  art,  admitted  sculpture,  whilst  strictly 
confining  it  within  the  limits  of  morality  and  utility. 
She  retained  the  archaic  style,  "  which  did  not  trans- 
fer the  attractions  of  living  nature  to  inert  material  " 
(Beule),  and  never  attempted  the  ideal  expression 
of  beauty.  Her  school  of  sculpture  was  prolific 
and  celebrated  in  the  age  of  Pisistratus  ;  but  in  the 
time  of  Pericles  it  was  supplanted  by  that  of 
Athens,  and  the  rugged  Dorian  genius  disappeared, 
buried  beneath  the  innumerable  and  surpassing 
works  of  her  conqueror,  the  charming  genius  of 
Ionia. 

Before  this  period  of  Athenian  supremacy,  how- 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  79 

ever,  we  find  the  old  Doric  style,  though  already- 
tempered  by  the  Ionic,  in  the  works  left  by  Kana- 
chus  of  Sikyonia,  Ageladas  of  Argos,  and  by 
the  whole  school  of  yEgina  ;  to  Kanachus,  who 
flourished  about  500  B.C.,  and  did  not  die  until 
after  the  invasion  of  the  Persians,  is  ascribed  a 
statue  of  Apollo,  made  for  the  sanctuary  of  Didy- 
mae,  near  Miletus,  in  Asia  Minor.  This  Didymaian 
Apollo  was  carried  away  by  Xerxes  in  his  flight, 
and  returned  to  the  Milesii  two  centuries  after- 
wards, by  Seleucus-Nicator.  Cicero's  words  :  "  The 
statues  by  Kanachus  are  too  stiff  to  be  true  to 
nature,"  prove  that  the  Sicyonian  sculptor  remained 
faithful  to  the  archaic  style,  so  much  admired  by 
the  Romans. 

The  Argian  Ageladas  was  a  contemporary  of 
Kanachus,  for  we  know  that,  aided  by  a  third 
sculptor,  Aristokles,  they  produced  a  group  of  the 
three  Graces.  That  by  Kanachus  held  the  flute  of 
Pan  ;  that  by  Aristokles  the  lyre  of  tortoise-shell ; 
that  by  Ageladas  the  Barbiton,  or  great  lyre  of 
Apollo.  We ,  know  little  of  the  life  of  Ageladas, 
but  tradition  has  preserved  the  remembrance  of 
some  of  his  most  celebrated  works.  He  was  pro- 
bably the  first  of  Grecian  sculptors  ;  he  made 
statues  of  different  athletes — Anochus  of  Taren- 
tum,    Timosithae    of   Delphi,    and    Kleosthenes   of 


80  OliECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

Epidamnus,  uhom  he  represented  on  a  chariot 
drawn  by  four  horses,  guided  by  a  driver.  The 
beauty  and  entirely  novel  grandeur  of  this  rich 
offering  excited  the  admiration  of  all  Greece.  But 
Ageladas  gained  more  renown  by  his  disciples  than 
by  his  works.  We  have  already  slated  that  he 
was  the  master  of  the  three  great  sculptors  of  the 
age  of  Perikles — Pheidias,  Polykletus,  and  Myron.* 
It  was  in  the  school  of  yEgina  that  the  fusion  of 
the  Doric  and  Ionic  styles  was  most  apparent,  and 
in  that  of  Athens  that  the  victory  of  the  Ionic  over 
the  Doric  was  consummated. 

The  constant  rival  of  Athens,  until  her  final  decay 
and  absorption  into  the  great  republic,  "  The  island 
of  yEgina,"  says  M.  Beule,  "  situated  in  front  of 
Attica,  was  like  the  advanced  sentinel  of  the 
Peloponnesus,  the  protector   of  the  Dorians  from 

*  It  is  unfortunate  that  no  authentic  work  of  Myron  has  been 
preserved  to  the  time  of  our  modern  collections.  We  know  that  he 
was  admired  by  all  Greece,  because  he  expressed  life  better  than  any 
other  artist.  His  Cow  suckling  her  calf,  of  Eleutheris,  was  as 
celebrated  as  the  Venus  of  Knidus.  It  has  suggested  numerous 
epigrams  :  "  Shepherd,  take  thy  cows  further  away,  lest  thou  also 
take  that  of  Myron."  "No,  Myron  did  not  model  this  cow:  time 
changed  it  into  bronze,  and  he  passed  it  off  as  his  work."  "O 
Myron  !  when  thou  didst  model  this  cow ;  which  the  shepherd 
mistakes  for  his  own,  and  the  heifer  for  her  mother,  thou  didst  more 
than  the  immortal  gods ;  for  they  are  gods  and  thou  art  but  a  man. 
It  would  have  been  easier  for  them  to  create  thy  model,  than  for 
thee  to  imitate  it." 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  81 

the  Tonians."  Over  ^gina  reigned  -^^acus,  the 
Numa  of  the  Greeks,  whom  pubhc  veneration  made 
one  of  the  judges  of  hell,  and  from  whom  descended 
a  long  line  of  heroes,  called  yEacides,  amongst 
whom  were  Peleus,  Telamon,  Achilles,  Ajax, 
Patrocles,  and  later,  Miltiades  and  his  son  Cimon. 
Rich  and  powerful  before  the  rise  of  the  city  of 
Minerva,  ^Egina  dates  the  origin  of  her  school  far 
back  in  history.  According  to  Pausanius,  Smilis 
of  yEgina  was  the  contemporary  of  Daedalus.  This 
is  to  make  him  also  a  fabulous  myth.  Then 
follows  Callo,  the  sculptor,  whose  works  Ouintilian 
compared  to  those  of  the  Etruscans  ;  Synnoos  and 
his  son  Ptolycus  ;  Glaucius,  who  was  ordered  by 
Gelon  of  Syracuse  to  make  an  extra  quadriga  for 
the  temple  of  Olympia  ;  and,  lastly,  Onatas,  the 
most  celebrated  of  the  .^ginetan  School.  He 
lived  after  the  Median  wars,  made  a  number  of 
images  of  gods  for  different  sanctuaries  of  Greece. 
and  took  part  in  the  ornamentation  of  the  great 
temple  of  his  country,  of  which  we  shall  presently 
give  a  few  details.  The  .Eginetan  marbles  rival  even 
those  of  the  Parthenon,  and  are  the  most  valuable 
treasure  of  the  Glyptothek  of  Munich  ;  in  fact,  none 
of  the  sacred  relics  of  ancient  art  in  Northern 
Europe  are  at  all  to  be  compared  to  them. 

Whilst  travelling  in    Greece  m   the    year    i8ii. 

G 


82  GRECIAN  SCULP  TUBE. 

Messrs.  Haller,  Cockerell,  Forster,  and  Linkh,  when 
measuring  the  height  of  an  old  temple  of  ^gina, 
found  a  number  of  sculptured  fragments,  seventeen 
nearly  perfect  statues  amongst  others,  almost 
at  the  surface  of  the  soil.  They  were  bought  at 
Rome  by  the  prince  royal  of  Bavaria,  afterwards 
Ludwig  I.,  taken  to  Munich,and  successfully  restored 
by  the  celebrated  Danish  sculptor,  Thorwaldsen  ; 
they  excited  great  and  general  interest.  German 
erudition  rejoiced  in  this  fortunate  windfall :  the 
learned  archaeologist  Ottfried  Muller,  the  philosopher 
Schelling,  Messrs  Wagner,  Hirt,  Thiersch,  Schorn, 
&c.,  built  up  vast  historical  and  aesthetic  systems 
on  these  fragile  ruins.  We  see  in  them  nothing 
more  than  works  of  art. 

The  seventeen  statues  of  Munich  are  the  most 
precious  relics  of  yEginetan  art ;  they  were  ornaments 
of  the  chief  building  of  ^gina,  thought  by  some 
to  be  the  temple  of  Minerva,  alluded  to  by 
Herodotus  and  others,  the  Panhellenion,  or  temple 
of  Zeus  Panhellenios.  To  give  an  idea  of  the  use 
and  position  of  these  figures,  an  imitation  pediment 
in  relief  has  been  placed  in  the  tympanum  of 
the  vault  of  the  room  in  which  they  are  ;  and  they 
are  arranged  at  its  base  on  stylobates  in  the  same 
relative  position,  only  further  apart  than  they 
occupied  in  the  original  temple.     This  contrivance 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  83 

gives  a  good  idea  at  a  glance  of  the  general  appear- 
ance and  detail  of  the  groups.  By  this  means  the 
front  and  back  pediments  of  the  temple  of  Jupiter 
Panhellenius  have  been  reconstituted  with  the 
seventeen  statues.  Five  figures  form  the  eastern, 
and  ten  the  western  pediment :  at  the  apex  of  the 
angle  of  the  latter  two  little  figures  were  probably 
placed  as  external  ornaments.  This  opinion  is 
borne  out  by  the  appearance  of  the  objects,  and  is 
so  well  founded  that  it  may  be  adopted  without 
fear  or  hesitation. 

But  when  thus^rranged,  what  do  these  seventeen 
statues  represent  .-*  This  question  leads  to  a 
boundless  field  of  conjectures  and  opinions,  to  a 
trial  without  a  judge  ;  but  they  are  evidently 
memorials  of  combats  and  victories  dear  to  the 
pride  of  the  small  race  of  iEgina.  No  one  denies 
this — but  are  they  victories  gained  by  the  Greeks 
over  the  Persians  at  Marathon,  at  Plataea,  at 
Salamina  '■  or  must  we  go  back  to  heroic  times,  and 
seek  their  explanation  in  the  wars  of  the  Greeks 
against  the  Trojans  .'  They  would  still  celebrate 
the  triumph  of  Europe  over  Asia,  and  by  recalling 
past  victories,  symbolically  represent  the  actual 
success  of  the  age.  The  latter  opinion  is  most 
widely  entertained,  and  also  the  most  probable. 
We  will  suppose  then  that  the  five  figures  of  the 


84  GRECIAN  SCULP TUliE. 

back  or  eastern  pediment  describe  the  struggle  of 
Hercules  and  Telamon  with  Laomedon,  the  king 
of  Troy.  The  kneeling  Sagittarius,  or  archer, 
letting  fly  an  arrow,  and  wearing  a  leather  cuirass 
and  a  lion's  head  as  a  helmet,  would  be  Hercules. 
The  naked  warrior  on  foot,  acting  on  the  offensive, 
and  wearing  a  helmet  and  shield,  would  be  Telamon, 
and  tlie  falling  hero,  Laomedon.  The  king  is  still 
supported  by  his  shield,  he  is  naked,  and  wears 
a  metal  helmet  with  straps  to  cover  the  cheeks, 
and  an  iron  point  extended  to  the  tip  of  the  nose  as 
a  protection.  This  is  the  Homeric  helmet.  No 
historical  names  have  been  given  to  the  warrior 
bending  forwards,  as  if  aiding  a  wounded  man ;  or 
to  the  other  soldier,  lying  on  his  back  in  the  hollow 
of  his  shield,  who  appears  to  be  still  fighting  with 
his  hands.  The  last  is  the  most  beautiful  of  this 
group,  and  that  of  Laomedon,  and  it  was  only  by 
accident  that  its  singular  attitude  was  discovered. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  explanation  of  the  eastern 
pediment  is  very  arbitrary.  That  of  the  western  is 
more  plausible.  The  ten  figures  of  the  principal 
group  are  supposed  to  represent  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  episodes  of  the  Iliad,  the  struggle  of 
the  Greeks  and"*  Trojans  round  the  body  of 
Patroclus.  A  full-face  figure  of  Minerva  stands  in  the 
centre,  and  from  the  position  of  her  f^et  and   the 


GBEi.'lAN  bCULl'TUnE.  85 

direction  of  her  javelin,  she  appears  to  be  siding 
with  the  Greeks  against  the  Trojans.  She  wears 
the  peplitvi  or  pep/us,  and  tlie  tunic  (-x^ltcov),  the 
borders  of  which  are  painted  red;  the  helmet  is  blue, 
the  shield  Argolic,  and  on  the  breastplate  there  was 
probably  a  Medusa's  head  in  bronze.  Patroclus 
is  on  the  ground,  supporting  himself  on  his  right 
hand  ;  Ajax,  the  son  of  Telamon,  is  protecting  him 
whilst  lancing  his  javelin  ;  and  is  followed  by 
Teucer,  wearing  the  short  cuirass  of  an  archer,  and 
Ajax,  the  son  of  Oileus,  who  is  lifting  the  shield 
and  javelin  with  both  hands.  The  figure  of  a 
wounded  warrior  trying  to  tear  the  steel  from  his 
breast,  completes  the  Greek  group  to  the  right 
of  Minerva.  On  the  left  are  placed  Hector,  with 
closed  vizor ;  Paris  as  a  kneeling  archer,  wearing 
a  high  Phrygian  cap  and  a  tight-fitting  coat  of 
mail,  reaching  to  the  feet,  and  painted  in  lozenges  ; 
^neas,  also  kneeling,  but  holding  a  sword  in  his 
hand  ;  and  lastly,  a  Trojan  wounded  in  the  thigh, 
who  has  fallen  to  the  ground.  A  fifth  figure,  not 
recovered,  must  have  completed  the  Trojan  part  of 
the  group,  with  the  erect  Minerva  in  the  centre  of 
the  triangular  pediment,  and  the  recumbent  warriors 
in  the  extreme  angles. 

The   little  figures   placed  on  the  outside  of  the 
pediment  are  of  two  small  goddesses,  exactly  alike, 


66  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

except  that  the  long  folds  of  their  robes,  which  they 
raise  with  one  hand,  are  so  arranged  as  to  fall  towards 
each  other.  They  are  called  Damia  and  Auxesia,  as 
they  are  supposed  to  be  statues  of  the  goddesses  of 
Epidaurus,  which  the  <^ginetans  carried  away  from 
that  town,  and  the  Athenians  tried  in  vain  to 
recover.  The  entirely  legendary  history  of  these 
goddesses  is  related  by  Herodotus  and  Pausanius. 
Lastly,  two  gryphons  with  outspread  painted  wings 
ought  to  be  seated  face  to  face  on  the  corners  of  the 
pediment.  The  only  one  recovered  has  been  placed 
near  the  capital  of  a  column  of  the  temple,  and  the 
two  largest  fragments  are  surrounded  by  twenty- 
four  smaller  pieces  of  statues,  the  greater  number 
of  which  properly  belong  to  the  eastern  pediment. 

The  fifteen  statues  preserved,  the  arrangement 
and  attitudes  of  which  we  have  indicated,  are  of 
various  sizes,  but  except  that  of  Minerva,  they  are 
none  of  them  of  the  medium  height  of  a  man. 
They  are  all  of  Parian  marble,  and  so  great  is  the 
care  and  delicacy  of  the  execution,  that  the  very 
wrinkles  of  the  naked  parts  are  rendered,  and  this 
without  any  aid  from  polish,  as  the  statues  were 
entirely  finished  with  the  chisel.  Two  salient  points 
at  once  attract  notice :  the  delicately  moulded 
limbs  have  great  energy  of  action,  a  kind  of  con- 
vulsive ap-itation  ;    the    attitudes    are   forcible    and 


GllEClAy  SCULPTURE.  87 

expressive,  the  outlines  striking  angles.  These  are 
the  characteristics  of  the  first  grand  style,  which 
Pausanius  declares  to  have  been  begun  by  Daedalus, 
and  which  was  adopted  by  the  two  celebrated 
.^ginetans,  Kallon  and  Onatas  ;  of  that  style  called 
the  sublime  by  Winckelmann,  and  the  square  or 
angular  by  Plin\',  which  preceded  that  of  calm  and 
tranquil  beauty  followed  by  Praxiteles  and  Pheidias. 
The  heads,  on  the  contrary,  long  ovals  ending  in 
a  pointed  beard,  like  those  of  the  earliest  Etruscan 
figures,  are  but  rough  casts,  like  the  terra-cotta 
masks,  \\hich  were  finished  off  with  colouring.  The 
oblique  eyes,  the  slightly  retrousse  nose,  the  sharp 
chin,  do  not  in  the  least  resemble  the  type  which 
has  been  called  Grecian  since  the  time  of  Pheidias. 
The  unfinished  features  are  devoid  of  expression, 
except  for  an  idiotic  smile,  which  distorts  the  faces 
of  the  dying  and  victors  alike.  Placed  on  such 
beautiful  and  perfect  bodies,  we  cannot  believe  that 
the  heads  were  left  in  a  crude  state  from  the 
sculptor's  inability  to  complete  them.  The  contrast 
marks  design  on  his  part,  and  what  we  want  is  an 
explanation  of  this  design,  which  we  can  only 
obtain  by  determining,  in  the  first  place,  the  epoch 
at  which  these  complex  statues,  and  the  temple 
which  contained  them,  were  produced. 

So    different    are   the   answers    returned   to   this 


88  GRECIAN  SVULPTUBE. 

question  that  some,  looking  upon  the  temple  of 
^gina  as  Doric — for  were  not  the  yEginetans  of 
the  Dorian  race  ? — ascribe  its  construction  to  the 
fabulous  times  of  Acachus,  and  others  count  it  a 
sign  of  the  progress  of  the  arts  under  Pericles. 
These  extremes  are  equally  improbable :  it  is 
more  likely  that  the  temple  of  ^gina  was  built  at 
an  intermediate  period,  directly  after  the  second 
Median  war  and  the  victory  of  Salamina,  the 
spoils  of  which  were  shared  by  this  town.  The 
name  of  Panhellenion  clearly  indicates  the  alliance 
of  the  Greeks  for  the  moment  against  the  common 
enemy,  and  the  oblivion  of  their  civil  discords 
before  a  great  danger.  The  presence  of  Minerva 
on  the  pediments  is  a  no  less  decisive  proof 
It  was  only  at  this  exceptional  time  of  fellowship 
that  the  ^Eginetans — hitherto  jealous  rivals  of  the 
Athenians  and  leagued  with  Sparta  against  them, 
subsequently  driven  by  them  from  their  native 
isle — could  have  set  u])  the  Athenian  goddess 
in  their  temple.  The  acceptance  of  this  date 
dispels  the  notion  that  these  two  groups  represent 
battles  against  the  Persians,  for  the  Greeks  never 
depicted  contemporary  events  in  their  temples, 
and  it  will  add  new  weight  to  the  generally  received 
opinion. 

It    appears   proved   then   that   the   Panhellenion 


ORECIAX  SCULPTUBE.  89 

preceded    the  Parthenon  by  forty  or    fifty    years, 
and  that  the  marbles  of  ^Egina  are  half  a  century 
older  than  the   masterpieces  of  Pheidias  ;   so  that 
their  double  character  is  easily  explained,  especially 
if    we    adopt    Winckelmann's    opinion    that    "the 
artists  of  this  island  retained  the  early  style  longer 
than  any  others."     As  long  as  the  first  sculptors 
were  content  to  make  images  of  the  gods  for  the 
altars,  they  remained  under  hieratic   influence  and 
employed  conventional  types,  as  did  the  Egyptians 
and  Assyrians.     It  was  when  they  moulded  statues 
of  heroes  and  athletes  for  the  public  squares,  that 
they  gave  life  to  the  limbs  and   tried  to  express 
power  and  beauty.     There  was  of  necessity  a  sort 
of  conflict,  a  compromise,  an  inevitable  blending  of 
the  two  styles  ;  as  at  the  beginning  of  the  Renais- 
sance there  was  a  combination  of  the   Byzantine 
types   with   a   growing   refinement    of  action    and 
expression.     The  statues  of  ^gina  belonged  to  a 
transition   period  between  the  age  of  dogma  and 
the  age  of  art.     The  immobility   of  the  features 
belongs  to  the  former,  the  freedom  of  the  limbs  to 
the  latter.     The  heroes  of  Greece  and   Troy   had 
the    heads    of  gods    and    the    bodies    of    athletes. 
Such  is  the  explanation  of  the  famous  and  remark- 
able marbles  of  /Egina,  which  to  me  appears  to  be 
the  most  simple,  complete,  and  .satisfactory. 


90  GliEClAN  SCULPTURE. 

Whilst    the    ^ginetans     were     adorning     their 
Panhellenium  with  these  hybrid  statues,  the  school 
of  Attica  was    gradually  freeing    itself  more  and 
more   from  dogma,   and    advancing   towards    pure 
art.     No  doubt,   in  spite  of  their   just   pride,   the 
Athenians  ought  to  have  owned  that  their  city,  of 
Ionian  origin,  received  the  first  rudiments  of  the 
arts  from  the  islands  of  Ionia,  and  that  their  very 
literature  was  founded  on  the  Homeric  forms  which 
also  sprung  from  the  shores  of  Asia  Minor.     How- 
ever, aided  by  the  neighbourhood  of  Pentelicus  and 
Hymettus,   which  supplied    them  with    marble    in 
abundance,  they  soon  had  a  national  school.     They 
boast  of  their  sculptor  Endoeus,  who,  rather  later 
than  the  54th  Olympiad,  made  a  seated  Minerva 
for  the  Acropolis,  and  who  was  probably  the  author 
of    the    Diana    of    Ephesus.       They    also    claim 
Simmias,    Antenor,     who    sculptured     the    group 
of    Harmodius    and    Aristogiton,    which     Xerxes 
carried  into  Asia,  and  the  place  of  which  was  after- 
wards filled  by  a  group  of  the  murderers  of  Hip- 
parchus    from    the   chisel    of    Praxiteles ;    Amphi- 
crates,    who    immortalized,   under   the    form    of   a 
lioness,  that  Lea^na,  the  friend  of  Harmodius,  who 
bit  out  her  tongue  that  she  might  never  betray  her 
accomplices  ;    Hegias,    or    Hegisias,    who    taught 
Pheidias  before   he   took    lessons  from   the   more 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  91 

learned  Ageladas  of  Argos.  But  according  to 
Ouintilian  and  Lucian,  the  statues  by  these  old 
masters  were  still  stiff,  cold,  and  coarse,  without 
ease,  grace,  or  suppleness.  They  had  what  M. 
Beule  called  the  ideal  lower  than  nature — that  of 
those  Egyptians  who  endeavoured  to  produce  a 
moral  effect  by  means  of  conventional  types. 
Soon,  however,  after  the  Median  wars,  came  the 
great  age  of  Pericles,  when  the  Athenian  artists 
strove  after  the  ideal  higher  than  nature — beauty 
and  grandeur  combined  with  truth  and  life. 
Pheidias  took  his  first  lessons  from  an  Athenian, 
but  it  was  at  Argos  that  he  completed  his  education. 
"  So  that."  says  M.  Beule,  "  he  united  the  character- 
istics of  the  Dorian  with  the  Ionian  genius ; 
the  severe  simplicity,  the  practical  knowledge, 
the  masculine  grandeur  of  the  first,  with  the 
rich  elegance,  the  movement,  the  grace,  of  the 
second.  In  him  the  two  principles  were  blended, 
producing  an  incomparable  whole.  .  .  .  He  it  was 
who  at  Athens  created  the  unity  of  Grecian 
sculpture." 

Now  that  we  have  come  to  the  age  of  the  final 
development  of  Grecian  art,  to  the  time  of  great 
works,  of  grand  masterpieces,  we  can  treat  our 
subject  differently,  resume  the  travels  we  began  at 
Munich,    and    examine   the    marvellous    relics    of 


92  GBECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

Grecian  sculpture  collected  in  modern  museums. 
We  will  visit  our  national  collection  in  the  Louvre 
first. 

After  ascending  the  stairs  of  the  peristyle  and 
advancing  a  step  along  the  gallery,  we  see  at  the 
end  of  a  long  vista,  standing  out  against  red 
drapeiy,  a  female  figure,  alone  on  its  pedestal  like 
a  god  in  his  cella,  grand,  severe,  a  flowing  robe 
about  the  loins.  It  is  much  mutilated,  very  incom- 
plete ;  both  arms  are  gone,  and  one  foot,  which  was 
evidently  stretched  forward.  This  damaged  statue 
is  the  most  precious  relic  of  ancient  art  which  Paris 
possesses.  It  is  the  Venus  of  Jl/e/os,  so  called,  partly 
because  a  greater  number  of  antiquaries  consider 
it  to  be  a  Vemis  Victrix  (or  a  Venus  triumphing 
over  Minerva  and  Juno,  and  proudly  holding  the 
apple,  the  award  of  Paris,  in  her  hand),  and  partly 
because  it  was  found  near  the  little  town  of  Melos  in 
an  island  of  that  name,  one  of  the  Cyclades,  famous 
for  its  catacombs,  amphitheatre,  and  the  cyclopean 
ramparts  of  its  vast  harbour.  Many  very  different 
names  have  been  given  to  it.*     It  was  accidentally 

*  Some  think  it  a  sea  nymph,  the  protecting  nereid  of  its  isle ; 
others  a  Nemesis,  and  they  have  considered  the  forty-three  surnames 
of  the  ancient  Venus,  to  see  which  would  best  suit  this  attitude  and 
gesture.  But  a  bronze  statuette  discovered  later  at  Pompeii,  which 
must  be  a  small  copy  of  our  Venus  of  Melos,  seems  to  settle  the 
questioi),  by  showing  what  our  statue  originally  vias.     She  must  have 


Fit:.  7. — The  Venus  of  Melos.     (Paris.     Museum  of  the  Louvre  ) 


U51VBRSIT 


ov 


^IPO 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  93 

discovered  in  February,  1820;  and  bought  by 
M.  de  Riviere,  then  French  ambassador  at  Con- 
stantinople, who  generously  presented  it  to  the 
museum  of  the  Louvre. 

Although  we  must  regret  the  damage  done  by 
time  and  by  the  hand  of  man,  we  have  reason 
to  rejoice  that  the  Venus  of  Melos  has  not  shared 
the  fate  of  her  sister  the  Venus  of  Medici,  which 
has  been  ruined  by  useless  and  unskilful  re- 
storation. Imagination  can  readily  supply  what  is 
missing,  and  Michael  Angelo  himself  might  well 
have  refused — as  in  the  case  of  the  Farnese 
Hercules — to  attempt  the  impossible  task  of  re- 
construction. The  Venns  of  Melos  is  certainly 
the  most  magnificent  specimen  of  Grecian  art 
of  which  Paris  can  boast  :  produced  in  that  great 
period  of  artistic  excellence  between  Pheidias  and 
Praxiteles,  it  was  probably  moulded  by  the 
great  sculptor  who  supplied  the  gods  of  all  the 
temples    of   Greece,    or    by    the   bold    artist    who 


held  a  mirror  in  her  left  hand,  and  "this"  says  M.  H.  Lavoix, 
"would  be  Venus  smiling  at  her  unrivalled  beauty."  The  expla- 
nation is  ingenious,  and  bears  the  impress  of  probability,  almost  of 
.rertainty  ;  and  yet  I  can  scarcely  think  that  this  majestic  Venus  of 
Melos  is  no  more  than  a  coquette.  But  if  we  do  not  know  what 
ner  action,  her  gesture,  was,  it  matters  little.  The  Greeks  cared 
.lothing  for  action  or  its  absence.  Has  she  beauty ''.  Has  she  life  ? 
It  is  enough. 


94  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

first  attempted  a  nude  Venus  with  Phryne  for  his 
model. 

This  statue  is  remarkable  not  only  for  the  dignity 
of  bearing,  the  undulations  of  the  torso,  the  delicacy 
of  the  skin,  and  the  ampleness  of  the  drapery  ;  but 
also  for  its  unaffected  simplicity,  and  the  perfect 
agreement  between  the  subject  and  the  style. 
Indeed  it  is  worthy  to  rank  above  all  the  achieve- 
ments of  Greece,  whether  in  literature  or  art,  and 
from  its  first  arrival  in  Paris  it  has  met  with  such 
unanimous  admiration,  that  it  has  even  eclipsed 
Diana  Huntress,  or  Diana  with  the  Stag,  the  worthy 
sister  of  the  Pythian  Apollo,  the  pride  of  the 
Vatican.  The  latter,  however,  long  reigned 
supreme.  It  is  supposed  that  it  was  brought  from 
Italy  for  Francis  I.  by  Primaticcio,  and  at  first 
placed  in  the  palace  of  Fontainebleau,  which  Vasari 
called  "  a  new  Rome."  Perhaps  in  the  fall  of  the 
"  Diana  "  we  may  trace  the  influence  of  the  love  of 
novelty  and  the  necessity  of  a  change  of  idols  so 
common  in  every  class.  Certainly  Diana  ivith  the 
Stag  may  contest  the  palm  even  with  the  Venus  of 
Melos.  Slender  but  vigorous,  masculine  but  chaste, 
she  better  represents  the  austere  goddess  of  the 
Ephesians ;  in  that  there  is  none  of  the  softness  of 
love  in  her  form  or  attitude,  and  she  seems  more 
ready  to  punish  Actaeon  than  to  awaken  the  beau- 


GBECIAN  SCULPTURE.  95 

tiful  sleeper  of  Mount  Latmos.  Diana  Huntress 
is  also  much  less  affected  and  theatrical  than  the 
Apollo  of  the  Belvedere,  which  has  perhaps  been  too 
much  praised  on  the  authority  of  Winckelmann. 
As  the  stag  which  bounds  by  the  side  of  the 
goddess  has  horns  on  its  head,  M.  de  Clarac  has 
surmised  that  it  may  be  the  stag  of  Cerinia,  with 
golden  antlers  and  brazen  feet,  which  Hercules  was 
ordered  to  bring  alive  to  Eurystheus,  and  which  he 
caught  in  Arcadia  after  a  long  pursuit,  and  retained, 
although  Diana  at  first  wished  to  take  it  from  him, 
and  threatened  him  with  her  arrows.  This  episode 
in  Diana's  history  may  have  been  the  subject  of 
the  statue,  which  is  considered  the  most  admirable 
representation  of  the  fair-limbed  goddess  left  to  us 
by  antiquity. 

In  any  case  these  two  illustrious  rivals,  the 
Venus  of  Melos  and  the  Diana  with  the  Stag,  to- 
gether with  the  other  gods  and  goddesses  which  we 
are  able  to  admire  in  Paris  and  elsewhere,  are  a 
striking  testimony  to  the  useful  influence  exercised 
over  the  arts  by  mythology.  In  the  belief  that 
men  were  made  in  the  likeness  of  the  gods,  and 
that  the  gods  .shared  all  human  emotions,  that  is  to 
say,  conceiving  gods  in  their  own  image,  the  Greeks 
had  to  strive  to  combine  all  that  was  most  beautiful 
in  human   forms,  in  order  adequately  to  represent 


96  GRECIAN  SCULl-TULE. 

divinity — the  model,  the  prototype,  the  apotheosis 
of  humanity.*  In  addition  to  this,  there  was  a 
perpetual  rivalry  between  the  temples  of  the 
different  states  and  the  various  colleges  of  priests, 
which  did  not  then,  as  they  do  now,  form  one 
single  corporation  ;  a  burning  and  ceaseless  riv^alry, 
which  led  to  an  endeavour  to  obtain  for  the  gods, 
altars,  tripods,  vases,  and  all  the  accessories  of 
worship,  the  most  beautiful,  elegant,  and  perfect 
forms  which  art  could  produce.  We  must  not  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  the  old  Grecian  idols  were  not 
only  painted,  but  dressed,  and  that  their  toilette 
was  attended  to  by  priests  and  women.  "They 
were  washed,"  says  Otfried  Miiller,  "  waxed,  rubbed, 
dressed,  brushed,  decked  with  crowns,  diadems, 
necklaces,  earrings."  This  was  the  act  both  of 
religion  and  ignorance,  and  we  find  equivalents  of 
the  Grecian  idols  in  the  Madonnas  of  Italy,  Spain, 
and  other  countries.  A  crude  faith  ;  a  crude  art. 
In  order  to  attract  offerings,  and  if  we  may  so 
express  ourselves,  to  obtain  custom,  it  was  necessary, 

*  "  The  gods,"  said  Epicurus,  quoted  by  Cicero  (de  Natura  Deor), 
being  perfect  creations,  could  only  choose  from  the  most  admirable 
of  the  forms  of  the  human  body ;  nor  could  they  take  any  other 
shape  tlian  that  proper  to  man.  In  our  endeavour  to  discover 
nature's  most  perfect  work,  what  can  we  conceive  superior  to  the 
proportions  and  grace  of  the  human  body  ?  Is  there  any  one  who, 
in  a  dream  or  awake,  could  fancy  gods  under  any  other  form  ?" 
Epicurus  justified  Christian  artists  beforehand. 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  P7 

in  this  rivalry  of  temples  and  priests  amongst  a 
people  of  excellent  taste,  to  endow  a  new  god  with 
supreme  beauty,  without  which  he  could  not  success- 
fully contend  with  the  old  fetiches  which  had  long 
enjoyed  the  adoration  of  the  people.  Hence  sprung 
the  Minervas  of  Athens,  the  Jupiter  of  Olympus, 
the  Juno  of  Argos,  the  Venus  of  Cnidus,  and  also 
the  Venus  of  Melos  and  the  Huntress  Diana.  They 
might  easily  seduce  from  their  allegiance  the 
adorers  of  the  horrible  bearded  Venus  of  Amathus 
and  the  old  Diana  of  Ephesus,  which  was  a  triformis 
monster  with  numerous  breasts* 

This  is  not  the  only  debt  of  gratitude  which  art 
owes  to  the  religion  of  the  Greeks.  It  was  poly- 
theism which  invested  each  divinity  with  a  suitable 
peculiar  and  easily  recognised  symbol,  and  not  only 
assigned  to  it  a  particular  attribute  of  moral  power, 
as  majesty  to  Jupiter,  grace  to  Venus,  force  to 
Hercules  ;  but  also  certain  tangible  types,  such  as 
the  thunderbolt,  the  quiver,  the  caduceus,  the 
thyrsus,  the  corytnbos  (the  knot  or  bunch  on 
Apollo's  head),  etc.  These  fixed  symbols,  these 
dogmas,  so  to  speak,  which,  however,  differed 
materially  from  those  of  Egypt,  left  the  artist  free 

*  The  primitive  Athena — Poliadis,  which  was  replaced  by  the 
three  Miner\'as  of  Pheidias,  was  a  mere  puppet  without  arms  wrapped 
in  a  peplum.  It  was  to  them  much  what  the  Madonna  of  Loretto 
of  the  present  day  is  to  a  work  of  Michael  Angclo  or  Canova. 

n 


98  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

in  the  treatment  of  forms  and  action,  whilst  they 
protected  beauty  by  making  it  in  a  manner  un- 
changeable either  by  caprice  of  fashion  or  frivolity 
of  judgment.  "  The  benefit  was  reciprocal,"  adds 
Emeric  David  {Rccherchcs  siir  I'art  statuaire)  ; 
"  religion,  by  combining  with  good  taste,  assured 
its  preservation,  and  aided  her  own  cause  so  effec- 
tually that  she  seems  to  live  again  in  the  master- 
pieces she  has  bequeathed  to  us." 

Venus   and    Diana   respectively   reign   supreme 
over  two  rooms  of  antiquities.     The  masterpieces 
of  two   other  apartments    are  statues    of  quite  a 
different  order,  not  gods  but  men,  the  Achilles  and 
the  Fighting  Gladiator.     The  first  is  supposed  to 
be  an   antique   copy  of  the  bronze   Achilles,  the 
celebrated  work  of  Alcamenes,  the  beloved   pupil 
and  rival  of  Pheidias.     It  is  evident  that  it  belongs 
to  the  age  of  that  simple  and  calm  beauty  which 
Winckclmann   called    "  the   sublime   style."      The 
regularity  of  the  shape,  the  symmetry  of  the  limbs, 
is  such  that,  like  the  celebrated  Doryphorce  (standard- 
bearer),  called  the  rule  of  Polycletes,  it  might  serve 
for  a  metrical  model  of  the  beautiful  proportions  of 
the  human  body.     The  hero  of  the  Iliad  has  no 
garment  but  the  elegant  Grecian  helmet,  covering 
the  long  hair  which  he  cut  off  in  his  despair  over 
the  corpse  of  Patroclus.     The  episphyrion  ring,  or 


Gil  EC  J  AN  SCULP  TUBE. 


99 


that  worn  above  the  ankle  on  the  right  leg,  was, 
according  to  a  tradition  not  adopted  by  Homer, 
a  protection  for  the  only  vulnerable  portion  of  the 
body  of  the  son  of  Thetis.  It  may,  however, 
merely  typify  the  chief  excellence   of  the  swift- 


Fig.  8. — Achilles.     (Museum  of  the  Louvre,  Paris.) 


footed  Achilles,  as  he  is  called  by  the  poet  ;  no  light 
praise,  as  the  prize  in  the  races,  was  always  the 
most  honourable  trophy  of  the  public  games  of 
Greece.  It  was  Visconti  who  gave  the  nam.e  of 
Achilles  to  this  statue.     Wiuckelmann  is  disposed 


100  on  EC  TAN  SCULPTURE. 

to  consider  it  a  Mars,  and  then  the  episphyrion  ring 
would  indicate  the  ancient  custom  of  some  of  the 
Grecian  races,  of  the  Spartans  amongst  others,  of 
chaining  up  this  god  of  battles  in  their  cities,  "  that 
he  might  never  leave  them  "  (Pausanias,  chap.  xv.). 
The  Fighting  Gladiator,  which  was  found  in  the 
ruins  of  the  Palace  of  the  Emperors  at  Antium,  is 
of  later  date  than  the  Achilles.  It  belongs  to  the 
more  vigorous  and  energetic  style  introduced  by 
Lysippus,  less  than  a  century  after  Pheidias.  At 
this  second  epoch,  artists  had  acquired  a  habit  of 
signing  their  works,  and  the  age  of  the  Fighting 
Gladiator  is  proved,  beyond  a  doubt,  by  the  name 
of  its  author,  Agasias  of  Ephesus,  son  of  Dositheos,* 
which  is  legible  on  the  trunk  which  supports  the 
figure.  In  any  case,  this  statue  is  Greek,  and  it  is 
misnamed,  because  it  does  not  represent  a  gladiator 
of  the  Roman  circus,  but  an  athlete  of  the  games 
of  Hellas.  Bernini  was  right  to  carve  gymnastic 
exercises  as  bas-reliefs  on  the  pedestal.  But  does 
it  represent  a  dancer  of  the  Pyrrhic,  or  war-dance, 
In  which  attack,  defence,  and  all  the  gestures  of  a 
struggle  are  imitated  .''     Is  it  an  athlete  contending 

*  In  reference  to  tl>is  title,  we  must  remark  that  the  affection 
Detween  master  and  pupil,  and  the  gratitude  of  the  latter,  were  often 
So  great  that  the  teacher  was  called  father.  "  So  that,"  says  Pliny, 
"it  is  doubtful,  when  we  find  the  father's  added  to  the  artist's  name, 
whether  that  of  the  true  or  adopted  ])arent  be  intended." 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  101 

for  the  boxing  prize  in  the  Olympian  games  ?  Is 
it  a  warrior  in  a  real  battle,  who  seems  to  be  con- 
tending on  foot  with  a  mounted  foe  ?  The  choice 
of  these  three  explanations  remains  open.  The 
form  and  attitude  are  very  beautiful,  the  execution 
is  delicate  and  bold,  and  the  energy  of  strength  in 
action,  as  seen  in  this  dancer,  athlete,  or  warrior, 
reminds  us  of  two  celebrated  groups  at  Florence 
and  Rome,  which  belong  to  the  same  epoch,  at  the 
beeinnincf  of  the  decadence  :  we  allude  to  the 
Wrestlers  and  the  Laocoon. 

In  our  notice  of  the  Vemis  of  Melos  and  the 
Huntress  Diana,  we  alluded  to  the  services  ren- 
dered to  art  by  polytheism.  In  speaking  of  the 
Achilles  and  the  Gladiator,  we  may  remark  that 
national  education  and  customs  aided  to  complete 
the  superiority  of  Grecian  art.  From  their  infancy 
men  practised  gymnastics  naked  ;  athletes  wrestled 
naked  on  the  stage  and  race-course  ;  and  the 
victors  were  represented  naked  in  the  statues  raised 
to  their  honour  by  the  pride  of  their  native  cities. 
This  spread  a  general  knowledge  of  plastic  anatomy, 
of  the  play  of  the  muscles,  and  the  fitness  of  the 
limbs,  according  to  the  laws  of  their  construction, 
for  the  various  functions  of  the  body.  It  was  by 
the  examination  of  his  naked  figure  in  the  race, 
the  (lance,  the  throwing  of  the  quoit,  in  wrestling 


102  OREUIAN  SCULPTURE. 

and  boxing,  that  the  master  of  the  gymnasium 
decided  for  what  a  youth  was  fit.  The  exceptional 
man,  whose  proportions  were  perfect,  and  whose 
powers  were  well  balanced,  was  declared  pentathlon 
(five,  or  perfect-powered),  fitted  for  the  five  exer- 
cises ;  his  was  perfect  beauty.  Hence  arose  the 
common  taste,  the  universal  rage  for  physical 
beauty,  called  by  Socrates  "  the  result  of  the  good 
and  useful."  In  the  solemn  games  of  Olympia,  of 
Nemaea,  or  of  Corinth,  it  was  not  only  the  citizens 
who  wrestled  before  assembled  Greece  ;  the  States 
themselves  contended  for  the  prizes,  in  the  persons 
of  the  choicest  of  their  sons  ;  and  to  these  public 
contests,  as  to  the  processions  which  bore  their 
offerings  to  the  great  divinities,  they  sent  their  most 
beautiful  young  men  ;  "  in  order,"  says  Plato,  "  to 
give  a  good  impression  of  their  republic."  Zeno 
calls  beauty  the  "Flower  of  Virtue f'  and  Socrates 
said,  "  My  eyes  turn  towards  the  beautiful  Autoly- 
cus,  as  to  a  torch  burning  at  midnight."  From  this 
double  current  of  ideas  tending  to  the  same  end, 
which  led  to  the  public  games  and  the  religious 
creeds,  sprung  a  unique  law — the  law  of  beauty — 
by  which  the  sculptors  of  the  statues  of  athletes 
and  gods  were  entirely  bound.  They  had  a 
hundred  living  models  before  their  eyes,  in  the 
schools  where  dancing  and  wrestling  were  taught, 


GRECIAN  SCULP  TUBE.  103 

and  in  the  beautiful  women  of  Ionia,  from  whom 
love  was  learnt.  What  is  beauty  ?  A  "  blind  man's 
question,"  replies  Aristotle. 

We  must  not,  however,  imagine  that  physical 
beauty  was  sought  after  in  Greece  to  the  exclusion 
of  moral  excellence.  On  the  contrary,  as  remarked 
by  Aristotle,  the  Greeks  required  indications  of 
intelligence  and  goodness,  in  addition  to  those  of 
health,  power,  and  skill  ;  they  knew  that  without 
them  mere  bodily  gifts  were  of  little  worth,  and 
might  lead  to  prejudicial  results.  They  wished  to 
know  of  a  virtuous  soul  in  an  agile  and  powerful 
body — mens  sana  in  corpore  sano  ;  and,  according 
to  Plato,  he  alone  was  beautiful  whose  mental  cor- 
responded with  his  bodily  perfection.  "  As  a 
natural  consequence  of  this  philosophy,"  says 
M.  Louis  Menard,  "  we  find,  in  the  effective  works 
of  Grecian  sculpture,  that  man  is  always  repre- 
sented as  above  passion,  and  stronger  than  suffering. 
In  leading  minds  along  the  enchanted  path  of 
boauty  to  the  conception  of  the  true  and  just, 
Greece  so  blended  the  laws  of  art  and  conscience 
as  to  translate  them,  in  her  plastic  art,  by  one  and 
the  same  expression."  Honours  and  rewards  were 
not  then  awarded  only  to  victorious  athletes  and 
heroic  warriors,  but  to  all  who  obtained  sufficiently 
Lrilliant  success  of  any  kind — in  literature  and  art, 


KM  GliECIAN  SCULPTUBE. 

as  well  as  in  games  and  war— to  become  the  pride 
of  their  country.* 

We  will  now  continue  our  review  of  Grecian 
works  of  art  in  the  Louvre, 

Aphrodite,  the  type  of  supreme  beauty,  had  so 
great  a  charm  for  the  artists  of  Greece,  and  they 
were  able  to  vary  her  statue  in  so  many  different 
ways  without  radically  altering  the  form,  that  the 
number  of  images  of  Venus  is  greater  than  that  of 
all  the  other  divinities  put  together.  The  Louvre 
contains  eiehtcen  statues  and  three  busts  of  this 
goddess.  After  the  Vants  of  Mdos,  we  come  to 
another  Venus  Victrix,  not  now  victorious  on 
Mount  Ida,  but  vanquishing  Mars  by  her  charms. 
She  holds  his  sword  with  the  timid  awkwardness 
of  a  woman,  and  by  her  side  Cupid,  like  an  inquisi- 

*  The  Greeks  loaded  their  great  citizens,  and  amongst  them  their 
great  artists,  with  more  honours  and  rewards  than  did  any  other 
ancient  or  modern  people  :  their  gratitude  and  lijjerality  -were  alike 
excessive.  "There  vas  a  theory  in  the  act  of  recompense,"  says 
Emeric  David,  "  and  the  honours  accorded  by  the  Athenians  were 
graduated  in  such  a  manner  that  there  was  ceaseless  emulation. 
Proclamation  in  the  tlieatre  of  the  name  of  the  man  they  desired  to 
honour ;  proclamation  at  the  public  games ;  a  crown  conferred  by 
the  senate ;  a  crown  conferred  by  the  people  ;  a  crown  given  at  the 
fetes  of  the  Panathenrea  ;  a  portrait  placed  in  a  national  palace  ;  a 
portrait  in  a  temple  ;  support  in  the  Prytaneum  ;  support  granted  to 
.  the  father,  the  children,  to  the  descendants  of  the  hero  for  ever  ;  a 
statue  in  some  public  place  ;  a  statue  in  the  Prytaneum  ;  a  statue  in 
the  temple  of  Delphis  ;  a  tomb;  public  games  and  periodical 
celebrations  at  the  tomb." 


OnECIAN  SCULPTURE.  105 

tivc  child,  is  trying  on  the  hchnet  of  the  God  of 
War.  A  Venus  Genitrix,  a  beautiful  statue  of  the 
best  era  of  art,  which  combines  all  the  usual  cha- 
racteristics of  the  mother  of  the  Graces  :  the  apple 
of  Paris  in  her  hand,  one  breast  bare,  the  ears 
pierced  to  receive  the  valuable  rings,  and  the  tunic 
fitting  to  the  limbs  so  as  to  show  their  graceful 
outlines.  A  draped  Venus,  with  the  name  of  Praxi- 
teles written  on  the  plinth,  supposed  to  be  an 
imitation  of  the  clothed  Venus  which  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Cos  demanded  of  the  illustrious  statuary, 
to  rival  the  nude  Venus  of  Gnidus  (Cnidus).  A 
libertine  Venus,  which,  as  restored,  is  crushing  under 
foot  a  human  foetus,  typifying  the  destructive  effect 
of  vice  upon  mankind.  The  Venus  of  Aries,  found 
in  that  town  in  165 1.  This  was  another  Venus 
Victrix,  remarkable  for  the  beauty  of  the  head, 
decked  with  graceful  ribbons.  In  restoring  the 
arms,  Girardon  put  a  mirror  in  the  left  hand,  instead 
of  the  helmet  of  Mars  or  yEneas.  The  Venus  of 
Troas,  an  imitation  of  a  celebrated  .statue  from  the 
temple  of  this  Phrygian  town  :  at  her  feet  is  a 
pyxis,  or  jewel-case.  Two  Marine  Venuses,  one 
]  ising  from  the  waves  at  her  birth,  the  other  called 
]  upl.x-a,  or  goddess  of  fortunate  voyages,  etc. 

If  Venus  represents  physical  beauty,  Minerva  is 
ihc  type  of  moral  perfection.     On  this  account,  and 


too 


GUECIAS  StULFTUllE. 


as  protectress  of  Athens,  she  was  as  great  a  fa- 
vourite with  the  Greeks  as  the  sea-goddess.  Het 
statues  are  plentiful  everywhere  ;  there  are  nine  in 
the    Louvre,    amongst    which   we   will   notice    the 


Fig.  g. — Pallas  of  Velletri.     (Museum  of  the  Louvre,  Paris.) 


Pallas  of  Velletri,  semi-colossal,  wearing  a  helmet, 
with  a  mitopon  (closed  visor),  a  lance  in  her  hand, 
the   a;gis  on    her   breast,   modestly   confining   the 


GRECIAN  SCULPIUJIE.  107 

tunic,  and  an  ample  pcplum  falling  to  the  feet. 
The  severe  and  noble  attitude  of  this  fine  statue, 
the  fTowing  folds  of  the  long  draperies,  the  calm 
and  sweet  expression  of  the  majestic  countenance 
in  the  martial  head-dress,  are  as  characteristic  as 
her  symbols  of  the  goddess  of  armed  peace,  of  the 
arts,  of  letters,  and  of  wisdom.  The  Minerva  with 
the  Necklace,  another  Pallas  in  armour,  of  the  exalted 
style  peculiar  to  the  age  of  Pheidias,  supposed  to  be 
a  copy  in  marble  of  the  Athena  in  bronze  by  the 
great  sculptor,  also  called  tlie  beautiful,  because 
she  is  adorned  with  the  pearl  necklace  usually 
reserved  for  Venus.  A  Minerva  Hellotis  (whose 
helmet  is  decked  with  myrtles),  which  is  probably  a 
copy  of  some  old  wooden  idol,  draped  with  heavy 
stuffs,  plaited  in  perpendicular  flutings  on  the  body. 
Apollo,  the  usual  type  of  manly  beauty,  afforded 
as  much  scope  as  Venus  for  the  skill  of  Grecian 
sculptors.  The  French  museum  also  contains  nine 
statues  of  this  god,  including  that  of  the  Sun,  with 
rays  about  the  head,  which  is  not,  strictly  speaking, 
an  Apollo,  but  Helios,  the  son  of  Hyperion  and  Thy ia, 
who  was  only  worshipped  at  Rhodes  and  Corinth. 
Although  four  of  the  nine  are  Pythian  Apollos,  the 
best  in  the  Louvre  is  one  of  the  two  called  Lycian, 
because  the  attitude,  that  of  repose,  with  the  arms 
folded  above  the  head,  and  the  serpent  crawling  at 


108 


QREVJAN  SVULPTUHE. 


the  feet,  are  suggestive  of  the  Lycian  Apollo,  to 
whom  Athens  raised  a  celebrated  temple.  We 
must  also  admire  the  young  Apollo  Saiiroctonos,  or 


Fig.  lo.  —  Hacchus.     (Museum  ot  the  Louvre,   Paris. 


Lizard  slayer,  the  head  of  which,  although  only 
restored,  is  antique,  supposed  to  be  a  good  copy  of 
the  bronze  Saiiroctonos  of  Praxiteles. 


(J n E CJA 1 :  bcuiri  uue. 


luy 


Agile,  and  scantily  clothed,  as  Fontaine  would 
express  it,  a  Diana  may  always  be  recognised  by  the 
tunic  raised  above  the  knees,  which  has  gained  her 


Fig.  II. — Mercury.     (Museum  (;f  the  Louvre,  Paris.) 

the  name  of  the  Fah'-Hinbcd  goddess.  Of  the  six  sis- 
ters of  the  Huntress  Diana  in  the  collection  of  the 
Louvre,  the  Diana  of  Gabii  is  the  most  celebrated. 


110  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

With  a  graceful  movement  she  appears  to  be  fasten- 
ing her  chlamys  (■)(Xa/xu'i,  a  linen  mantle  caught  to- 
gether on  the  shoulder).  Of  the  three  statues  of 
Bacchus  in  our  museum,  one  is  the  Indian  or  bearded 
(irwyov)  Bacchus,  and  the  two  others  are  Grecian  ; 
one  in  repose,  the  other  drunken,  both  wearing  the 
CredemnoH,  or  diadem  with  ivy,  and  no  garment 
but  a  fawn's  skin.  Three  Hercules,  amongst  others 
a  semi-colossal  group,  in  which  the  god  of  strength 
holds  his  delicate  child  Telephus  in  his  powerful 
arms,  with  the  hind  which  suckles  it  close  beside 
him.  Three  Mercuries,  one  with  Vulcan,  in  which 
group  the  gods  of  the  mechanical  arts  are  in  a 
manner  united.  As  Vulcan  is  not  here  deformed,  the 
two  figures  were  long  taken  for  Castor  and  Pollux, 
or  for  Orestes  and  Pylades  ;  but  the  Greeks  hated 
ugliness,  and  gave  beauty  even  to  the  Parcae,  the 
Eumenides,  to  Nemesis  and  to  the  Gorgon.  Three 
Cupids,  all  charming.  The  one  trying  his  bow, 
with  a  graceful  body  and  a  bright  arch  face,  is,  per- 
haps, a  copy  of  the  bronze  statue  made  by  Lysip- 
pus  for  the  town  of  Thespiae.  Another  still 
younger,  full  of  tender  grace,  is  considered  a  t}pe 
of  infant  beauty  by  Winckelmann,  and  may  be  a 
copy  of  the  one  which  Parium  prides  itself  on 
having  received  from  Praxiteles.  The  third  is  a 
sphffirist    kicking    a     ball    as    he    springs     along. 


GRECIAN  SCULPTUHE.  Ill 

Butterflies,  the  emblems  of  the  soul,  were,  however, 
the  usual  toys  of  the  god  of  the  affections.  A 
Nemesis,  interesting  from  the  position  of  the  right 
arm,  which  is  so  bent  as  to  represents  a  cubit,  the 
common  measure  of  the  Greeks.  The  allegorical 
proportion  of  merit  and  reward,  this  metre  was  the 
type  of  the  goddess  of  distributive  justice.  A 
solitary  Jupiter,  coarse,  short,  heavy,  and  of  clumsy 
execution.  The  small  number  of  statues  of  the 
king  of  the  gods  found  anywhere,  would  seem  to 
imply  that  Grecian  artists  despaired  of  representing 
him  in  all  his  serene  and  majestic  beauty,  after  the 
Olympian  Jupiter  which  Pheidias  translated  from  a 
verse  of  Homer :  "He  bent  his  brows,  the  hair 
shook  upon  his  immortal  head,  all  Olympus  trem- 
bled " — that  Jupiter,  the  chief  of  masterpieces, 
which  should  have  been  as  eternal  as  art  itself,  but 
v/as  destroyed  at  the  taking  of  Byzantium  by  the 
crusaders  of  Baldwin. 

In  the  Louvre  there  are  but  five  of  the  nine 
Muses  which  form  the  family  of  Apollo  and  Mne- 
mosyne. First  the  colossal  statue  of  Melpomene, 
from  the  theatre  of  Pompey  at  Rome.  It  is  four 
metres  high,  and  none  of  the  entire  statues  be- 
queathed to  us  by  antiquity  are  of  greater  dimen- 
sions. Fragments  alone  suggest  the  idea  of  larger 
colossi,  such  as  the  Hippomacin  of  Lysippus,  or  the 


112 


G 11  EC  I  AN  SOUL  P  TURK. 


gigantic  brazen  Apollo  raised  over  the  port  of 
Rhodes  by  his  pupil  Chares.  In  spite  of  her  massive 
size,  this  Muse  in  the  tragic  buskin  is  as  graceful 
and  elegant  as  the  Farncsc  Flora,  the  giantess  of 
Naples.  A  Urania  holding  up  the  skirt  of  her  tunic 
with  her  left  hand,  which  really  rather  resembles 


iini'iiiiii "  It'll.  ':ii[i  iiini  iii!iiiiiiiii(iiiiini<iiniiiinitimiitiiiiiii!iiiiiiiniiHiifi'iiiiinMt  rpimiimminniiiti  ni 


Fig.  12.— The  Tiber.     (Museum  of  the  Louvre,  Paris.) 

a  personification  of  Fate,  but  has  become  the  Muse 
of  astronomy,  because  Girardon  has  chosen  to  put 
a  sidereal  crown  upon  her  head.  A  Polyhymnia, 
also  called  Study  and  Reflection,  the  head  and 
upper  part  of  the  body  of  which  are  modern,  but 
which  is  nevertheless  admirable  on  account  of  the 


o 
rt 


I?. 


GRECJA  N  SCULPTURE.  1 1  ?, 

wonderful  arrangement  of  the  draperies  by  which 
the  figure  is  completely  covered. 

A  few  local  divinities  complete  the  collection  of 
gods.     The  Tiber,  another  giant,  near  to  whom  the 
she-wolf  of  Mars  suckles  the  two  founders  of  Rome. 
This  colossal  Tiber  was  discovered  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifteenth  century,  amongst  the  ruins  of 
the  Rome  of  the  Caesars.     It  remained  at  the  Vati- 
can, with  the  group  of  the  Nile,  and  was  one  of 
the  very  few  ancient  statues  which  the  papal  city 
possessed    in    those    days.      These    two    old    men 
with   long  beards,   carelessly   resting  on   the    urns 
from  which  their  waters  flow,  are  characterised  by 
symbols  and  emblems.     The   Tiber,  crowned  with 
laurels,  to  suggest  the  glory  of  Rome,  holds  an  oar 
as   a  si^n  that  his  bed    is    navisrable  ;    whilst  the 
Nile,  leaning  on  a  sphinx  and  holding  the  cornu- 
copia or  horn  of  plenty,  is  surrounded  by  sixteen 
little  sprites,  which  typify  the  sixteen  cubits  of  inun- 
dation necessary  to  produce  a  good  harvest.     A 
Ge7iiiis  of  Eternal  Repose,  supposed  to  be  a  type  of 
the  endless  rest  conferred   by   death  ;  a  charming 
youthful  figure,  calmly  beautiful,  leaning  against  a 
pine,  from  which  tree  resin  was  obtained  for  funeral 
purposes — the  legs  crossed,  the  arms  resting  above 
the  head,  which  were  the  three  emblems  of  repose. 
"  Grecian  art,"  justly  remarks  M.  Menard,  "always 

I 


114  ORECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

avoided  expressing  the  idea  of  death  by  repulsive 
representations  ;  it  was  never  alluded  to  but  with 
a  severe  decorum  which  bordered  on  affectation." 
The  BorgJicsc  Hermaphroditus,  said  to  be  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  many  copies  in  marble  of  the  cele- 
brated bronze  Hermaphroditus  of  Polycles,  who 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  great  Polycletus 
of  Sicyon.  Of  the  age  of  Polycles,  more  than  three 
centuries  after  Pheidias,  when  Roman  influence  was 
already  felt,  it  is  evident  that  this  statue  of  the  son 
of  Hermes  and  Aphrodite,  who  had  become  andro- 
gynous by  his  union  with  the  nymph  Salmacis, 
belongs  to  that  age  of  disordered  imagination, 
when,  as  Vitruvius  remarks,  "  caprices  of  fancy 
were  more  sought  after  in  works  of  art  than  imita- 
tion of  nature."  Chastity,  almost  entirely  enveloped 
in  her  veil  and  long  robes.  Two  Dancing  Fauns, 
one  with  a  beautiful  body  from  the  shoulders  to  the 
middle  of  the  thighs,  and  the  rest  a  mere  restora- 
tion, plays  with  little  crotali,  or  small  Grecian 
cymbals  ;  the  other  with  the  scabilinm  or  scabelliim, 
a  small  instrument  which  was  pressed  with  the 
foot.  Both  are  full  of  the  vivacity,  the  impetuosity, 
and  the  infectious  gaiety  always  characteristic  of 
these  singular  beings.  Finally,  the  group  called 
the  Fann  witli  the  Child,  the  same  as  Silcinis  zvith 
the  young  Bacchus.     The  elegance  and  beauty  of 


GliECIAy  SCULtTURE. 


115 


form  and  expression,  and  the  delicacy  of  the  execu- 
tion in  this  group,  entitle  it  to  rank  amongst  the 
chief  sculptures   in  the    French  museum  of  anti- 


Fig.  14.— Faun  with  a  Child.     (Museum  of  the  Louvre,  Paris.) 


in 


quities.     It  was  found  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  gardens  of  Sallustius  near  the  Ouirinal. 

Besides  the  divinities,  there  are  many  important 
and  excellent  statues  of  human  heroes  and  athletes 


no 


GRECIAN  SCULl'Ti'RE. 


in  the  Louvre.  Amongst  others,  a  very  beautiful, 
youthful  figure,  which  might  have  disputed  the  palm 
v.ith  the  Achilles,  had  not  the  head  been  restored 
and  made  too  small  for  the  body.     For  a  long  time 


Fig.  15. — Tlie  pretended  Germanicus.    (Museum  of  the 
Louvre,  Paris.) 

it  was  called  Cincinnatus,  on  account  of  the  plough- 
share at  the  feet.  It  cannot,  however,  represent 
the  Roman  senator,  as  the  style  is  Grecian  and  the 
figure  too  youthful.     Winckelmann,  after  studying 


GRECIAN  kCULPTUB E.  117 

it,  decided  that  it  must  be  Jason,  because  the  youth 
fastens  his  sandal  on  to  his  right  foot,  leaving  the 
left  bare.  In  fact,  according  to  the  account  of 
Pherecydes,  Jason  assumed  the  character  of  a 
labourer,  in  order  to  allay  the  suspicions  of  his 
uncle  Pelias  ;  and  when  the  messenger  of  the  king 
of  lolchus  came  to  bid  him  to  a  solemn  sacrifice, 
the  hero  set  out  half-shod,  in  order  to  appear  before 
Pelias  as  t/w  wan  ivitJi  a  single  sandal,  whom  the 
oracle  had  designated  as  his  future  murderer.  This 
scientific  explanation  appears  incontrovertible,  and 
the  statue  is  called  Jason  :  it  appears  to  be  from  the 
skilful  hand  of  the  author  of  the  Fighting  Gladiator. 
A  Ccnta2ir,  supposed  to  be  a  repetition  of  one  of 
those  by  Aristaeus  and  Papias  of  Casius.  The  little 
victorious  genius  on  the  crupper,  who  is  fastening 
his  victim's  hands  behind  his  back,  is  not  love  but 
intoxication,  as  proved  by  the  wreath  of  ivy  on  his 
brow.  By  a  strange  whim,  the  nose  of  this  cen- 
taur is  distorted  and  wrinkled  like  that  of  a  neierh- 
ing  horse.  A  Marsyas,  hanging  by  the  arms  to  the 
branches  of  a  pine,  and  about  to  suffer  the  mar- 
tyrdom he  has  provoked  by  his  challenge  on  the 
flute  of  the  God  of  the  Lyre,  the  pitiless  god  of  the 
genus  irritabile  vatum.  This  beautiful  figure,  re- 
markable for  the  profound  knowledge  of  muscular 
anatomy  displayed  in   it,  is  thought  to  be  one  cf 


118  OR  EC  I  AN  SCULPTURE. 

the  numerous  copies  in  sculpture  in  full  or  bas- 
relief  of  the  celebrated  picture  by  Zeuxis,  called 
the  Bound  Marsyas,  which  was  to  be  seen  at  Rome 
in  the  time  of  Pliny,  in  the  temple  of  Concordia. 
A  Discobolus,  or  athlete,  throwing  the  quoit,  a  happy 
imitation  of  the  celebrated  Discobolus  of  Naucydes. 
We  now  come  to  that  class  of  statues   called 


Fig.  16. — A  Discobolus.     (Museum  of  the  Louvre,  Paris.) 

statues  iconiccE  by  the  Romans,  i.  e.,  statue-portraits 
(from  eUcov,  image).  They  became  fashionable 
when  Grecian  sculptors  were  commissioned  to  im- 
mortalise the  athletes  who  were  victorious  in  the 
public  games.  In  them  all  notion  of  the  ideal 
beauty  given  to  the  gods  was  laid  aside  ;  all  flattery, 
all  deception,  was  forbidden  ;  and  nature  was  faith- 


*s~^ 


Fig.  1 7. —The  Faun  of  Praxiteles.     (Rome.) 


GREJIAN  SCULP  TUBE.  110 

fully  copied  ;  actual  proportions  were  retained,  and 
even  faults  were  not  disguised.  There  are  but  few 
of  these  Grecian  iconic  statues  in  the  Louvre.  A 
seated  philosopher  meditating  is  called  Demosthenes, 
because  the  features,  which  are  restored,  resemble 
those  of  the  great  Athenian  orator.  The  volume 
he  is  unrolling  upon  his  knees  may  be  the  History 
of  the  Pelopomicsian  War,  by  Thucydides,  which 
Demosthenes  admired  so  much  that  he  copied  it 
ten  times.  It  would  be  well  to  write  that  beautiful 
inscription  on  the  pedestal  which  was,  according  to 
Plutarch,  engraved  on  the  statue  raised  to  the 
orator  by  his  fellow-citizens  :  "  If  thy  powers,  oh, 
Demosthenes,  had  been  equal  to  thy  genius,  the 
Macedonian  armies  would  never  have  triumphed 
over  Greece."  We  recognise  Alexander  the  Great 
in  a  hero  on  foot  wearing  a  helmet,  with  effeminate 
features  and  an  arrogant  expression.  This  statue, 
which  is  of  the  heroic  style,  is  probably  a  copy  of 
an  Alexander  by  Lysippus,  who,  like  Apelles  in 
painting,  had  the  exclusive  right  of  sculpturing  the 
conqueror  of  Darius.  This  Alexander  of  haughty 
mien  seems  to  be  saying  to  Jupiter,  as  in  the  epi- 
gram of  Archelaus :  "  Our  division  is  made,  oh, 
king  of  the  gods  !  To  thee,  heaven,  to  me,  the 
earth !" 

The  large  number  of  Hermes  make  up  for  the 


120  GliEClAN  SCULPTURE. 

scarcity  of  Grecian  statue-portraits.  The  name  of 
henncs  (which  is  not  that  of  Mercury,  but  comes 
from  e/3/xa,  stone)  is  given  to  short  busts,  cut  off  at 
the  elbow,  without  arms  or  body.  Amongst  them 
there  is  a  Homer,  or  at  least  the  figure  said  by 
tradition  to  represent  the  poet  of  Achilles  and 
Ulysses.  He  is  crowned  with  the  sacred  fillet,  he  is 
the  divine  Homer.  A  Miltiadcs,  distinguished  by 
the  bull  of  Marathon,  engraved  on  his  helmet.  A 
Socrates,  the  face  of  which  is  a  true  portrait,  because 
being  the  son  of  a  sculptor,  and  himself  a  sculptor 
in  his  early  years,  the  wise  Grecian  was  the  friend 
and  councillor  of  the  artists  of  his  time  ;*  and 
because  after  his  death  the  remorseful  Athenians 
made  Lysippus  raise  a  bronze  statue  of  the  great 
man  they  had  unjustly  condemned,  by  means  of 
which  his  features,  since  so  often  repeated,  w^ere 
preserved.  An  unfinished  Alcibiades,  very  interest- 
ing, because  the  head  still  retains  the  projecting 
points  employed  by  Grecian  sculptors  to  assure 
the  correctness  of  their  measurements.  A  Henna- 
bicippns  (or  a  terminal  hermes  with  two  heads  back 

*  Socrates  was  the  author  of  a  group  of  The  TIn-ec  Graces,  whicli 
was  still  in  a  public  position  at  Athens  when  Pausanias  visited  that 
city,  in  the  second  century  of  our  era.  In  Xenophon  (Famous 
Sayings  of  Socrates)  we  may  find  the  excellent  advice  which  he  gave 
to  artists  as  to  the  best  mode  of  expressing  the  passions  of  the  soul 
as  well  as  the  forms  of  the  body. 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  121 

to  back)  of  Epicurus  and  his  friend  Metrodorus.  In 
the  fetes  called  Icadcs,  because  they  were  held  on 
the  20th  of  each  month,  the  Epicureans  carried  the 
bust  of  the  philosopher,  crowned  with  flowers, 
through  their  houses. 

Amongst  the  bas-reliefs  which  may  be  called 
religious,  because  they  have  reference  to  the  various 
cre\ds,  we  will  select  for  notice  the  Muses,  a  large 
design  which  covered  the  three  principal  sides  of  a 
sarcophagus.  In  it  we  see  the  nine  daughters  of 
Genius  and  Memory.  Clio,  holding  a  volume  in 
which  to  write  history  ;  Thalia,  wearing  a  comic 
mask,  pastoral  buskins,  and  with  bare  legs,  to 
typify  the  license  of  comedy  ;  Erato  is  merely 
noticeable  on  account  of  the  fillet  {cecryphalus)  which 
binds  her  hair,  and  is  all  that  marks  her  for  the 
presiding  spirit  of  erotic  poetry,  of  wit,  and  of 
philosophic  converse  ;  Euterpe  holds  her  two  flutes 
{tibia;),  and  in  addition  to  the  laurel  of  Apollo  she 
wears  the  robe  of  the  lyric  singers  {ortliostadus) ; 
Polymnia,  wrapt  in  her  vast  mantle,  meditates  on 
poetry  and  elegance  ;  Calliope,  a  stylus  in  one  hand, 
a  tablet  in  the  other,  is  preparing  to  write  epic 
verses  ;  TerpsicJiore  plays  on  tiic  lyre  to  incite  to  a 
choral  dance  ;  Urania  with  her  radius  traces  the 
movements  of  the  stars  upon  a  globe  ;  and  la.stly, 
Melpomene,  wearing    the   cotlmrnus   and    the   regal 


122  GBECIAN  SCULFTURK. 

tunic,  raises  the  tragic  mask  from  her  thoughtful 
and  gloomy  brow.  The  Nereides,  another  sepulchral 
ornament  of  excellent  workmanship,  in  which  are 
seen  four  sea-nymphs,  escorting  the  same  number 
of  little  spirits,  typifying  happy  human  souls,  to  the 
fortunate  isles.  The  Birth  of  Venus,  the  same 
subject  as  the  Veniis  Anadyoniejie  of  Apelles.  In 
this  group  we  see  the  beautiful  Aphrodite  emerging 
from  the  spray  of  the  waves  (a^po?),  surrounded  by 
an  escort  of  Nereides  and  Tritons,  who  joyfully 
celebrate  the  arrival  of  the  Mother  of  the  Loves  in 
our  world. 

Amongst  the  bas-reliefs  the  subjects  of  which 
are  rather  historical  than  mythological,  we  will 
name — the  Obsequies  of  Hector,  a  vast  composition, 
which  includes  the  greater  number  of  the  personages 
immortalised  by  the  Homeric  poems.  The  ancient 
Priam  is  at  the  knees  of  Achilles,  of  whose  statue 
there  remains  unfortunately  only  a  fragment.  In 
default  of  the  hero  of  the  Iliad,  however,  the  hero 
of  the  Odyssey  is  recognisable  by  his  cap  (7n\iBio)v), 
of  the  shape  of  half  an  egg.  Agamemnon,  between  his 
herald  Talthybius  and  Epens,  who  built  the  famous 
Trojan  horse.  This  bas-relief  is  of  the  very  ancient 
style,  earlier  than  that  of  the  second  or  choragic 
style.*     The  Presiding  Spirits  of  the  Games,  a  work 

•  This  name  was  appropriated  to  the  monuments  of  art  raised  at 


GRECIAN  SCUL PTUR  E.  1 23 

full  of  grace  and  spirit,  where  children  instead  of 
men  show  all  the  exercises  of  the  gymnasium. 
Under  the  superintendence  of  a  president,  they 
compete  at  races,  games  of  quoits,  and  wrestling- 
matches  ;  and  the  victors  proudly  display  their 
palms  and  crowns. 

Amongst  the  many  objects  employed  in  the 
worship  of  the  gods  and  of  the  dead,  we  will  only 
notice  the  grand  and  celebrated  Altar  of  the  Tzvelve 
Gods.  It  is  of  triangular  form,  and  on  each  side 
in  the  upper  division  are  four  of  the  twelve  great 
gods,  beginning  with  the  five  children  of  Saturn, 
Jupiter,  Juno,  Neptune,  Ceres,  Vesta — and  ending 
with  the  seven  children  of  Jupiter,  Mercury,  Venus, 
Mars,  Apollo,  Diana,  Vulcan,  and  Minerva.  In  the 
lower  division,  the  figures  being  larger,  are  only 
nine  in  number,  three  on  each  face  ;•  on  one  side  a 
dancing  group  of  Graces  ;  on  the  other  the  Hours  or 
Seasons,  Eunomia,  Dice,  and  Irene,  who,  as  they 
typify  spring,  summer,  and  autumn,  carry  leaves, 
flowers,  and  fruit.  On  the  other  side  are  three 
goddesses,  with  the  sceptre  in  the  right  hand,  sup- 

their  own  expense  by  the  choragi  (from  x^P*^^*  choir,  and  Syetu,  to 
conduct),  or  directors  chosen  by  each  of  the  ten  parties  or  classes  of 
Athens,  to  preside  at  religious  ceremonies  and  the  games  in  the 
theatre.  The  office  of  choragus  was  a  high  public  post,  and  rich 
citizens  in  accepting  it  pledged  their  honour  to  deserve  the  prizes 
which  were  kept  in  the  temples  and  preserved  their  names. 


124  GRECIAN  SCULiTURE. 

posed  to  be  the  Eilythise,  who  presided  over  the 
birth  of  mortals,  in  opposition  to  the  Parca,  or 
MoircB.  These  figures  of  different  archaic  cha- 
racters have  been  thought  to  be  of  the  /Eginetan 
style,  or  at  least  of  that  of  the  choragic  monuments. 
This  would  account  for  Mercury's  long  beard,  and 
for  the  modest  clothing  of  Venus  and  the  Graces. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  calm  repose  of  the 
attitudes,  the  fulness  of  the  draperies,  the  refinement 
of  the  drawing,  and  the  delicacy  of  the  carving, 
which  does  not  bring  the  figures  into  greater  pro- 
minence than  the  very  depressed  bas-reliefs  of  the 
frieze  of  the  Parthenon,  connect  this  altar  with  that 
later  age  when  Grecian  sculpture  was  at  the  zenith 
of  its  glory.  To  reconcile  the  conflicting  characters 
of  form  and  execution,  the  ingenious  suggest  that 
it  may  be  an  imitation  of  the  choragic  style  pro- 
duced after  the  age  of  Pheidias. 

From  France  we  pass  to  Italy,  and  according  to 
the  usual  custom  of  travellers,  we  go  to  Florence 
before  Rome  and  Naples. 

The  series  of  antique  marbles  begins  in  the 
second  hall  of  the  museum  degl'  Uffizi.  We  will 
merely  name  the  two  immense  wolf-hounds  with 
gaping  mouths  and  fiery  eyes,  which  seem  to  guard 
the  entrance  to  the  galleries  ;  and  the  celebrated 
marble  boar  called  the  Boar  of  Florence,  of  which 


GUECIAS  bCULFTUBE. 


125 


SO  many  copies  have  been  made  ;  and  pass  on  to 
the  room  of  Niobc,  set  apart  for  the  valuable  series 
of  Greek  statues  called  Niobe,  and  those  of  her 
children,    and    the    pedagogue.       They    were    all 


Fig.  1 8. — Niobe.     (Florence.) 

discovered  together  in  1583,  at  Rome,  near  the 
gate  of  St.  Paul.  The  Medicis,  .who  obtained  pos- 
session of  them,  took  them  to  Florence.  Every 
one    is    well    acquainted    uith    the    mythological 


ti      f       ^ii    *v 


126  GHECIAX  SCULPTURE. 

history  of  Niobe,  told  by  Ovid  and  Apollodorus,  of 
that  Niobe,  the  daughter  of  Tantalus  and  wife  of 
Amphion,  who  as  the  mother  of  a  numerous  family 
d..'pised  her  sister  Latona,  because  she  had  but 
two  children.  Apollo  and  Diana  cruelly  avenged 
their  mother  by  slaying  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  whom  Niobe  was  so  proud,  before  her  eyes. 
The  scene  of  the  massacre  is  not  quite  agreed 
upon.  Ovid  says  it  took  place  on  the  Hippo- 
drome of  Athens,  other  at  Thebes,  others  again  on 
Sibylus,  a  mountain  of  Lesbos  or  Lesbus.  The 
number  of  children  is  equally  disputed,  different 
authors  state  there  were  three,  five,  ten,  fourteen, 
and  even  twenty.  Homer  has  fixed  it  at  twelve. 
The-  group  of  Florence  consists  of  sixteen  statues, 
and  includes  the  mother  and  the  pedagogue.  But 
two  of  them  certainly  do  not  properly  belong  to  it, 
and  it  is  therefore  reduced  to  twelve  statues  of 
children,  the  number  chosen  by  Homer. 

If  we  refer  to  a  passage  in  Pliny,  which  may 
apply  to  them,  as  well  as  to  an  old  Greek  epigram, 
the  group  of  Niobe  would  seem  to  be  the  work  of 
Praxiteles,  but  some  antiquaries  attribute  it  to 
Scopas.  It  is  certain  that  Niobe  herself,  the  young 
girl  on  her  left,  the  dying  boy  and  the  two  children 
placed  on  either  side  of  the  pedagogue,  are  of  such 
sublime  beauty  that  they  are  worthy  of  the  greatest 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  127 

Grrci.iii  sculptors.  Winckelmann,  who  as  a  rule  is 
equally  ucscrvx^d  and  enlightened  in  his  criticism,  is 
lavish  in  his  praise  of  them.  He  justly  remarks 
that  the  daughters  of  Niobe,  at  whom  Diana  is 
aiming  her  murderous  arrows,  are  represented  in 
the  unutterable  anxiety,  the  stupefaction  of  the 
senses  engendered  by  the  inevitable  approach  of 
death  ;  and,  to  quote  Montaigne,  "  in  the  gloomy, 
deaf  and  dumb  stupidity  which  paralyzes  us." 
Niobe  herself,  so  well  known  from  casts  and  draw- 
ings, expresses  suffering  even  better  than  the 
Laocoon.  That  of  the  latter  is  physical  suffering, 
which  he  shares  with  his  sons,  who  like  himself  are 
in  the  coils  of  the  serpent  ;  that  of  the  Nicbe  is 
nobler,  an  entirely  moral  agony  ;  in  no  danger  of 
being  struck  herself,  she  suffers  only  in  the  pain  of 
her  children.  She  does  but  gaze  up  to  Heaven 
with  eyes  full  of  reproach.  The  four  or  five  best 
statues  of  this  fine  group  will  always  be  models  of 
true  beauty  as  understood  by  the  ancients. 

It  remains  to  be  seen  how  this  group  of  Niobe  was 
originally  arrayed,  and  what  purpose  was  served 
by  the  statues  thus  united  in  one  conception 
and  one  scene.  According  to  Pliny,  there  was  a 
group  of  Niobe  and  her  children  at  Rome,  taken 
fiom  the  Temple  of  the  Sosian  Apollo,  and  a 
skilful   English  architect,  Mr.  Cokerell,  has  argued 


128 


QBECJAN  SCULtTUIiE. 


from  this  that  the  fourteen  statues  found  together 
in  one  excavation  once  decorated  the  pediment  of 
a  temple.  Indeed,  in  a  drawing  made  to  support 
his  opinion,    he  reconstructed  the  pediment  as  it 


Fig.  19. — TTie  Venus  of  Medici.     (Florence.) 


woula  have  existed  before  the  Romans  despoiled 
the  temples  of  Greece.  In  the  centre  Niobe  holds 
a  dying  maiden  in  her  arms,  and  on  either  side  six 


GUECJAN  SCULPIUUE.  129 

riir^ires  arranged  to  suit  the  triangular  tympanum, 
complete  the  group. 

In  the  Tribuna,  that  room  of  masterpieces,  that 
sanctuary  of  art,  where  the  most  precious  relics  of 
ancient  statuary  and  the  best  modern  paintings 
meet  face  to  face,  is  preserved  the  most  celebrated 
piece  of  sculpture  in  the  possession  of  the  rich 
museum  dcgP  Uffizi,  the  Venus  of  Medici. 

It  was  found  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  broken  in  thirteen  places — at  the  shoulder, 
the  middle  of  the  body,  at  the  thighs,  the  knees, 
and  the  ankles.  The  fractures  being  regular,  how- 
ever, it  was  easily  put  together,  and  it  would  have 
been  a  thousand  times  better  if,  instead  of  feeling 
bound  to  restore  the  arms,  which  v/ere  missing,  the 
owners  had  left  it  mutilated,  like  our  Vejius  of 
Melos,  leaving  th("  spectator's  own  imagination  to 
supply  what  was  wanting.  Although  the  restora- 
tions are  very  clever,  Bernini  says  that  they  are 
noticeable,  more  especially  in  the  hands,  in  which 
there  is  now  a  kind  of  awkward  affectation,  a  prudery 
in  fact,  which  could  not  have  existed  in  the  antique 
work. 

This  Venus  was  brought  to  Venice  during  the 
reign  of  Cosmo  III.,  and  the  name  it  still  retains 
was  then  given  to  it. 

Although  so  small  and  delicate,  for  it  is  no  higher 

K 


130  GliJ'CIAN  SCULI'TUnE. 

than  four  feet,  or  eight  inches  old  French  measure- 
ment, the  VC71US  of  Medici  is  considered  the  model 
of  the  proportions  of  a  woman,  as  the  Apcllc 
Belvedere  is  of  the  proportions  of  a  man.  The  work 
is  so  perfect,  the  head  so  beautiful,  the  body  so 
graceful,  all  the  details  so  delicate,  and  the  whole 
so  full  of  charm,  that  it  would  doubtless  have  been 
attributed  to  one  of  the  great  ancient  sculptors  ; 
Pheidias,  Praxiteles,  or  Scopas,  for  instance,  if  an 
inscription  on  the  base  copied  from  the  original,  did 
not  prove  it  to  be  from  the  chisel  of  Cleomenes,  the 
son  of  Apollodorus,  an  Athenian.  Perhaps  instead 
of  the  name  Cleomenes  we  ought  to  read  Alcamenes, 
also  an  Athenian,  and  the  greatest  Grecian  sculptor 
between  Pheidias  and  Praxiteles,  author  of  a  famous 
Venus  alluded  to  by  Pliny,  which  was  at  Rome  in 
his  time.  Otherwise  this  is  the  only  work  we  have 
of  an  unknown  artist,  not  once  mentioned  by 
Pausanias.  In  any  case  it  must  be  placed  in  the 
highest  rank,  for  if  copies  had  not  multiplied  it  to 
profusion,  it  would  be  worth  while  to  go  to  Florence 
to  admire  the  Venus  of  Cleomenes,  as  the  temple 
of  Gnidus  (Cnidus)  was  visited  from  all  parts  of 
Greece  by  admirers  of  the  Venus  of  Praxiteles,  of 
which  it  was  said,  that  it  was  to  the  statues  of 
Venus  what  Venus  herself  was  amongst  the 
godde.s.ses  ;   indeed  it  appeared  so  instinct  with  life, 


GREVIAN  SCULL'TUKE. 


131 


tb.at  Ovid  said,  "  If  she  remained  motionless,  it  was 
because  her  divine  majesty  enjoined  immobihty." 

A    little    Apollo   of   four    feet    high,    called     the 
Apolliiio,  is  also  attributed  to  Clcomenes,  but  for  no 


Fig.  20. — Apoir.no.     (Florence.) 

other  reason  than  a  certain  resemblance  to  the 
Vejius  in  style  and  execution.  It  has  an  advantage 
over  the  latter  in  being  entirely  antique.  If  the 
Apollo  Belvedere  may  be  called  the  model  of  the 


132 


GliEClA  S  S L ■  Uir  TURK. 


sublime,  the  Apollino  certainly  deserves  to  be  con- 
sidered the  model  of  the  graceful.  This  observa- 
tion, made  by  the  discerning  Raphael  Mengs,  is  also 
the  first  to  occur  to  the  observer,      The  careless 


Fig.  21  —The  Musical  Faun.     (Florence.) 

attitude,  the  free  and  supple  action,  the  finely 
moulded  limbs,  the  pose  of  the  head,  with  the 
almost  ironical  smile  and  expression,  all  combine 
to  make  the  Apollino  the  most  graceful  form  which 


Gii EciA N  scuL  p  run  /■:.  i  ^3 

ever  arose  before  the  creative  imagination  oftlie 
sculptor.  The  work  of  the  chisel  is  no  less  perfect 
the  details  of  the  flesh  are  rendered  with  a  delicacy, 
a  morbidezza  which  is  actually  deceptive.  Canova 
seems  to  have  imitated  this  style  in  his  most  elabo- 
rate works. 

The  Apollino  was  preceded  at  the  gallery  of 
Florence  by  the  Faun,  a  relic  of  the  best  age  of 
Grecian  sculpture,  which  was  admirably  retouched 
and  finished  by  Michael  Angelo.  This  Faun, 
entirely  naked  and  full  of  gaiety,  life,  and  impetu- 
osity, is  generally  attributed  to  Praxiteles,  for  no 
other  reason  than  the  perfection  of  the  shape  and 
of  the  execution.  Near  to  it  we  find  the  famous 
group  of  the  Wrestlers  (La  Lotta),  attributed  to 
Cephissodotus.  Its  chief  merit  is  that  it  gives  a 
most  accurate  representation,  not  of  a  human  body 
in  repose,  but  of  one  in  motion,  showing  the  tension 
of  the  muscles,  the  swelling  of  the  veins,  in  fact,  all 
the  phenomena  of  active  power  in  the  excitement 
of  a  struggle.  In  this  respect  the  group  of  the 
Wrestlers  may  challenge  the  examination  of  the 
strictest  anatomist,  and  the  precision  of  the  drawing, 
and  grace  of  the  lines  in  the  entangled  limbs  of 
these  two  prize-fighters,  may  invite  the  criticism  of 
the  most  exacting  judge.  The  expression,  too,  is 
equally    faithful    to    anatomy.      The    head   of  the 


134 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 


vanquished  is  puro'.y  antique,  and  the  gloomy  and 
distorted  features  express  impotent  fury,  whilst 
those  of  the  conqueror,  although  finished  by  modern 
retouches,  are  full-  of  the  pride  of  victory. 


Fig.  22.  —  The  Wrestlers.     (Florence.) 


There  remains  a  figure  difficult  to  name,  of  which 
we  have  a  bronze  copy  in  the  garden  of  the 
Tuileries.  It  is  a  man  with  a  coarse  and  common 
face,  a  low  foreliead  and  short  rough  hair,  in  a 
cons:;raincd  position,  neither  seated   nor  kneeling; 


GRKCIAS  SCULriURE. 


];;-. 


he  is  crouching  before  a  stone  on  which  he  is 
sharpening  his  knife.  The  Italians  call  him  the 
Arrotino,  and  we  have  given  him  various  names 
— the  Knife-grmdcr,  the  Rotator,  and  the  Spy,  be- 


Fig.  23. — The  Arrotino.     (l'"Iorence. 


ca^se,  his  head  being  on  one  side,  and  his  eyes 
raised,  he  would  appear  to  be  interested  in  some- 
thing beyond  his  mechanical  occupation.  Some 
have  supposed  it  to  be  the  slave  who  discovered 
the  conspiracy  of  the  sons  of  the  first  Brutus  for 


]3r,  GllhUIAN  SCULf'TU/iE. 

restoring  the  Tarquins ;  others,  that  it  was  the 
slave  who  revealed  the  Catiline  plot.  None  of 
these  conjectures  could  be  true  of  a  Grecian  work, 
and  they  have  been  proved  to  be  false  by  con- 
clusive evidence.  Amongst  the  engraved  stones  in 
the  collection  of  the  King  of  Prussia,  there  is  one 
described  by  Winckelmann,  which  represents  the 
torture  of  Marsyas.  Before  the  condemned,  who 
is  already  bound  to  the  tree,  is  the  figure,  exactly 
resembling  the  Ar7'otijio,  of  the  Scythian  ordered 
by  Apollo  to  flay  his  unfortunate  rival.  The  same 
personage,  in  the  same  attitude,  occurs  in  many 
bas-reliefs  and  on  the  reverse  side  of  numbers  of 
antique  medals.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
Grinder,  the  Rotator,  the  Spy,  the  Cincinnatus,  the 
slave  revealing  secret  conspiracies,  are  all  none 
other  than  the  Scythian  who  put  Marsyas  to  death. 
At  Rome  there  are  two  chief  collections  of 
antiquities,  in  the  Vatican  and  in  the  Capitol. 
We  will  say  a  tew  words  of  the  latter,  in  which  a 
few  beautiful  Grecian  works  are  mixed  with  an 
immense  number  of  Roman.  First  we  must  notice 
a  charming  statue 'of  Venus  leaving  the  Batli.,  "Oa^ 
subject  of  which  allows  of  freer  action  than  was 
usual  in  the  goddess  whose  beauty  was  all  suffi- 
cient ;  next  comes  a  colossal  Mars,  who  is  perhaps 
"a  Pyrrhus  ;  then  the  celebrated   Dying  Gladiator ; 


'       Of  THK        >^ 

yiri7BESIT7] 


i^irov.-^- 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  137 

then  a  majestic  ynno,  called  the  Jimo  of  the  Capitol ; 
then  a  finely-draped  Diana  ;  an  Egyptian  Minerva 
(Neith)  ;  a  Harpoerates,  distinguished  by  his  lotus 
crown  ;  a  Disconsolate  Hecuba,  and  two  Amazons ; 
one  of  them,  with  a  short  tunic  which  does  not 
cover  the  legs,  who  is  grasping  her  bow  in  an 
energetic  manner,  might  be  called  a  Huntress 
Diana,  if  she  had  the  symbol  of  the  Goddess  of 
Night  on  her  brow. 

.  From  the  Capitol  we  pass  to  the  Vatican. 

Although  very  modern,  almost  recent,  the 
museum  of  the  popes  is  extremely  rich  in  anti- 
quities. The  various  vestibules,  halls,  and  galleries, 
especially  the  portico  called  della  Corte,  contain  an 
immense  number  of  bas-reliefs,  columns,  capitals, 
sarcophagi,  vases,  candelabra,  animals,  busts, 
statues,  and  fragments  of  every  kind,  selected  from 
those  which  have  been  dug  from  the  ground  of  that 
Rome  which  Pliny  said  contained  more  statues 
than  inhabitants,  and  from  the  soil  of  which, 
according  to  the  Abbe  Barthelemy,  no  less  than 
seventy  thousand  have  really  been  exhumed.  To 
realise  these  figures,  we  must  remember  that 
Pausanias  asserts  that  Nero  took  five  hundred 
bronze  statues  from  the  temple  of  Apollo  at 
Delphis  alone.  How  many  of  marble  ?  I  can 
but  select  the  best  specimens  for  notice  in  so  vast 


138 


GRECIAN  SCULFTUl.E. 


a  field,  and  mention  such  masterpieces  as  might 
be  collected  in  another  Tribuna* 

The  most  celebrated  statue  of  the  Vatican,  and 


Fig.  25. — Venus  leaving  the  Bath.     (Rome.) 

so  to  speak,  the  most  popular,  is  certainly  the 
Pythian  Apollo,  better  known  under  the  name  of 
the  Apollo  Belvedere,  because  it  was  at  first  placed 

*  We  refer  the  reader  to  the  Itineraire  ot  Italic,  by  M.  Du  Pays, 
which  mentions  the  different  parts  of  the  Museum  of  Antiquities, 
and  their  most  interesting  contents. 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 


139 


in  that  room  by  Michael  Angelo.  This  statue  was 
found  at  the  beginning  of  the  i6th  century,  in  the 
baths  of  Nero,  at  Porto  d'Anzo,  the  ancient  Antium. 
Every    one   knows    that  Apollo   is  represented    in 


Fig.  26. — The  Amazon  of  the  Capitol.     (Rome.) 


the  act  of  discharging  a  mortal  arrow  at  the  Pvthon, 
from  which  his  statue  acquired  the  name  given  it 
by  the  Athenians  and  preserved  by  Paiisanias. 
This  explains  the  somewhat  theatrical  attitude  of 


140  GREC'IAX  SCULPTURE. 

the  body,  and  the  proud  and  triumphant  expression 
of  the  face.  Winckehnann,  Mengs,  and  a  hundred 
others  have  pronounced  this  Apollo  the  most  beau- 
tiful of  antique  statues,  the  perfect  model  of  the 
sublime.  "  To  realise  the  merit  of  this  master- 
piece of  art,"  says  Winckelmann,  "  the  mind  must 
soar  to  the  realm  of  incorporeal  beauty,  and  strive 
to  imagine  a  celestial  nature,  for  there  is  nothing 
mortal  here.  .  .  ."  But  other  enlightened  judges 
have  contested  its  exclusive  right  to  the  first  place. 
Canova  and  Visconti  think  it  is  a  copy,  more 
delicately  executed,  of  the  ancient  bronze  Apollo 
by  the  sculptor  Calamis,  erected  in  Caria  by  the 
Athenians  after  the  great  plague  ;  and  Chateau- 
briand declares  it  to  be  "too  much  vaunted."  Is 
there  then  no  medium  term  }  It  appears  to  me 
that,  although  it  does  deserve  most  of  the  praise 
of  its  enthusiastic  admirers,  the  Pythian  Apollo 
ought  not  to  hold  the  first  rank  alone,  but  that  it 
should  share  it  with  such  works  as  the  Venus,  the 
Diana,  and  the  Gladiator,  of  Paris  ;  the  Venus,  the 
Niobe^  the  Faun  of  Florence  ;  the  Laocoon  and  the 
Mercury  of  Rome,  etc.  Perhaps  it  would  appear 
more  superior  if  it  were  less  celebrated.  As  it  is, 
every  traveller  on  his  first  visit  to  the  deep  and 
illuminated  niche,  in  which  a  kind  of  altar  has  been 
raised,  when  he  hears  from  the  lips  of  the  guide  the 


fig.  27- — The  Apollo  of  the  Belvedere.     {Rome.     Vatican.) 


Fig.  28. — The  Laocoon.     (Rome.) 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  141 

solemn  words  ''Apollo  Belvedivc','  anticipates  such 
surpassing  beauty,  such  passionate  emotion,  that 
disappointed  in  his  expectations,  he  either  mutters 
or  exclaims  aloud  the  dictum  of  Chateaubriand. 
It  is  the  same  with  the  ocean,  the  Alps,  and  all 
great  things  which  have  been  much  eulogised  ;  the 
first  view  does  not  do  them  justice.  A  little  time, 
a  little  patience  is  needed  before  appreciation 
comes. 

The  Laocoon  can  better  undergo  the  terrible 
ordeal  of  the  first  sight.  All  imitations  and  copies, 
even  that  of  which  Bandinelli  was  so  proud,  are  so 
inferior  to  the  original  that  the  first  introduction 
to  its  real  beauty  is  almost  an  unexpected  surprise. 
We  understand  why  first  Pliny,*  and  later  Michael 
Angelo,  Lessing,  and  Diderot,  awarded  the  palm 
to  this  famous  group ;  we  comprehend  the  fete 
held  by  the  Romans  on  the  ist  of  June,  1506, 
under  Julius  II.,  in  honour  of  its  discovery.  The 
Laocoon  expresses  physical  agony,  and  a  will 
stronger  than  agony,  better  than  any  other  piece  of 
sculpture.  Not  even  the  family  of  Niobe,  or  that 
embodiment  of  active  resisting  force,  the  Wrestlers, 
the  chiselling  of  which  has  seldom  been  excelled, 
can  be  said  to  surpass  it.  It  is  the  work  of 
Agesander,    of   Rhodes,    aided    by    his    two    sons, 

*  Opus  omnibus  et  picturae  et  statuariae  artis  prseponendum. 


142  gr::cian  sculpture. 

Polydorus  and  Athenodorus.  According  to  Pliny, 
this  whole  group  was  wrought  out  of  one  block  of 
marble.  As  the  subject  is  from  the  second  canto 
of  the  y^neid,  in  which  Virgil  tells  the  fate  of  the 
high  priest  of  Neptune,  we  may  conclude  that  it  is 
of  the  age  of  the  first  emperors,  when  even  Greek 
statuary  had  left  the  calm  simplicity  of  the 
time  of  Pericles  far  behind.  The  Mercury  (or 
Meleagcr)  is  a  fine  statue,  in  perfect  preser- 
vation, replete  at  once  with  grace  and  vigour,  of 
which  it  is  enough  to  state  that  it  is  justly 
classed  with  the  most  valuable  works  which  have 
come  down  to  us  from  antiquity.  B  it  in  the 
opinion  of  connoisseurs,  they  are  all  inferior  to  a 
mere  broken  fragment,  a  Torso,  also  called  The 
Belvedere.  It  is  in  white  marble,  the  remains  of  a 
statue  of  Hercules  in  repose,  by  ApoUonius,  son  of 
Miston  or  Nestor  of  Athens,  as  stated  in  the  Greek 
inscription  on  the  base,  so  that  it  must  belong  to 
the  great  age  of  Greece.  (See  Fig.  30,  p.  144.)  It  is 
remarkable  for  every  beauty  possible  in  a  single 
form,  and  combines  the  most  opposite  excellencies, 
such  as  energy  and  grace,  strength  and  elasticity. 
Michael  Angelo  called  himself  the  pupil  of  the 
Torso.  He  copied  the  details  and  the  general 
effect  in  his  figure  of  St.  Bartholomew  in  the  Last 
Judgment ;  and  it  is  related  that  in   his  extreme 


Fi£j.  29. — The  Torso  of  the  Belvedere.     (Rome.     Vatican.) 


,     ^        of  IBM        ^ 


GRECIAN  SCUl.rrURE. 


143 


old  aee,  when  he  was  almost  blind,  he  still  liked 
to  trace  those  outlines  with  his  trembling  fingers 
at  which  he  had  so  often  gazed  with  admiration. 
True  or  false,  this  anecdote  shows  the  spirit  of  the 


Fig.  2'j.     The  Dancing  I-',iun.     (Xaples.) 


age,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  great  artists  for  anti- 
quity ;  and  it  paints  the  portrait  of  the  man"  who, 
from  his  birth  to  his  death,  loved  art  and  art  alone, 
In  the  museum  dcgli  Studj  at  Naples,  there  are 


144  GRECIAN  SCULPTUIiE. 

some  bronze  antiquities  obtained  in  excavations  at 
Pompeii,  Herculaneum,  and  Stabiae.  They  are  very- 
rare,  as  numbers  of  the  same  kind  were  destroyed 
in  barbarous  times,  for  the  sake  of  the  valuable 
material.  Of  about  a  hundred  of  these  figures,  the 
best  are — the  little  Dancing  Faun,  a  perfect  gem, 
a  very  marvel  of  grace,  ease,  and  vivacity  ;  the 
Sleeping  Fami ;  the  Drunken  Faun,  leaning  over 
his  bottle  and  snapping  his  fingers ;  the  Seated 
Mercury,  which  evidently  belongs  to  the  best  age 
of  Grecian  art ;  the  figure  called  Sappho,  also  the 
bust  of  Plato,  the  hair  of  which  is  most  delicately 
chiselled  ;  a  horse,  sole  remnant  of  the  quadriga^  of 
which  it  formed  part. 

Amongst  the  marbles  of  the  Stndj,  the  Vejius  of 
Capita  and  the  Venus  Callipygos  take  first  rank. 
The  first,  grouped  with  Cupid,  represents  the  god- 
dess victorious  over  her  rivals  in  the  meeting  on 
Mount  Ida.  Although  the  amphitheatre  of  Capua, 
where  it  was  found,  was  built  under  Hadrian  in  the 
best  age  of  Roman  art,  this  Venus  is  so  beautiful, 
that  it  is  supposed  to  belong  to  the  grand  era 
of  Greece,  and  to  be  from  the  chisel  of  Alcamenes 
or  Praxiteles.  The  graceful  attitude  of  the  Venus 
Callipygos  explains  the  Greek  name,  which  is  un- 
translatable. Casts  have  made  this  fine,  delicate, 
and  bewitching  statue  familiar  to  every  one,  and  it 


GRECIAN  SCULP  TURF..  145 

is  justly  called  the   rival  of  the  Venus  de  Medici. 
The  Apollo  with  the  Swan  should  be  classed  with 
these  celebrated  statues  of  Venus.     Winckelmann, 
forgetting  that  of  the  Belvedere,  pronounced  it  to 
be  the  finest  of  the  statues  of  Apollo,  and  that  the 
head    is    the   perfection    of  human    beauty.      The 
name    of  Farnese  has    been    given    to    three   very 
valuable  antiquities   of  great   renown,   which   were 
found  in    1540,  in  the  thermal  baths  of  Caracalla, 
during  the  pontificate  of  Paul  III.  (of  the  House  of 
Farnese).     The  Flora,  although  a  colossal  statue, 
like  the  Melpomene  of  the  Louvre,  is  light,  animated, 
and  full  of  grace.     Greek  characters  inscribed  on 
the  base  of  the  Farnese  Hercules  prove  it  to  be  the 
work  of  the  Athenian,  Glycon.     At  first  only  the 
torso  was  discovered,  and  Paul  III.  ordered  Michael 
Angelo  to  supply  the  missing  legs.     But  the  Floren- 
tine had  scarcely  finished  his  clay  model,  when  he 
broke  it    to    pieces  with  a  hammer,    declaring  he 
would  not  add  a  finger  to  such  a  statue.     It  was  a 
less  celebrated,  and  less  scrupulous  artist,  Giacomo 
della    Porta,    who    restored   the    work    of   Glycon. 
A  little  later,  the  legs  were  found  in  a  well,  three 
miles  from  the  baths,  and  the  Borghesi  presented 
them  to  the  king  of  Naples,  who  was  thus  enabled 
to  complete  the  antique  statue  almost  entirely,  the 
left  hand  alone  being  still  wanting.     The  history 

L 


14G 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURi:. 


of  this  colossus  sufficiently  proves  its  beauty  and 
value.  It  is  a  marvellous  representation  of  power 
in  repose — of  the  calm,  self-sufficient  strength  de- 
scribed by  Aristotle  {de  Physiognomia) 


•f '&■  3'- — T'lc  Fariiese  KuU.     (Naples. 


The  enormous  group  to  which  the  name  of  the 
Toro  Faniese  has  been  given,  was  found  with  the 
Flora  and  the  Hercules.  According  to  Pliny,  it 
was  Asinius  PoUio  who  brought  it  from  Rhodes  to 


OREGIAN  SCULP  TUB  K.  147 

Rome.  A  whole  family  of  artists,  father  and  sons, 
worked  together  at  the  Laocoon,  and  in  the  same 
manner  two  sculptors,  Apollonius  and  Tauriscus, 
combined  to  produce  the  Toro.  In  fact,  it  is  th 
most  extensive  work  which  has  been  preserved  to 
us  from  ancient  statuary  ;  it  is  more  than  a  group, 
it  is  a  complete  scene.  It  is  the  history  of  Dirce. 
Antiope,  the  wife  of  Licius,  king  of  Thebes,  being 
divorced  on  account  of  Dirce,  ordered  her  sons, 
Zethus  and  Amphion,  to  bind  her  rival  to  the  horns 
of  a  wild  bull  ;  but  just  as  the  savage  beast  was 
starting  forward,  Antiope  v/as  softened,  and  par- 
doned her.  Such  is  the  subject  ;  the  four  human 
figures  and  the  bull  are  all  larger  than  life,  and  on 
the  base,  or  rather  theatre  of  the  scene,  there  are 
plants,  a  Bacchus,  a  dog,  and  other  animals.  Ac- 
cording to  Pliny,  this  immense  work  was  chiselled 
from  a  single  block  of  marble,  fourteen  hands  long 
and  sixteen  high.  Its  size  alone,  which  is  quite 
exceptional  for  a  sculpture,  would  suffice  to  make 
this  composition  in  marble  important,  but  although 
restored  in  several  parts,  it  is  also  worthy  of  atten- 
tion and  admiration  on  account  of  the  vigour  and 
delicacy  of  the  workmanship.  Although  not  ccjual 
in  this  respect  to  the  marvellous  Laocoon,  the  Toro 
Farnese  may  be  classed  amongst  the  most  beautiful 
Grecian  statues  which  have  come  down  to  us. 


148  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

The  following  statues  must  also  take  high  rank  : 
— Ganymede  aftd  the  Eagle ;  a  semi-colossal  sitting 
statue  of  the  Apollo  CitharcBdjis,  playing  the  lyre, 
finely  draped,  in  spite  of  the  hardness  of  the  mate- 
rial, which  is  all  of  porphyry,  except  the  head, 
hands,  and  feet  of  white  marble  ;  an  Atlas 
stistahiing  a  Celestial  Globe,  a  fine  and  powerful 
figure,  which  admirably  renders  the  exertions  of  a 
man  bending  under  his  burden  ;  and,  lastly,  the 
admirable  Greek  statue,  by  an  unknown  author,  of 
Aristides.  As  there  is  no  acknowledged  portrait 
of  the  wise  Athenian,  it  is  evident  that  the  statue 
has  been  named  from  a  supposed  resemblance  to 
his  character.  It  is,  in  fact,  an  unpretending,  calm, 
honest  face,  with  the  serenity  of  virtue  on  the  brow, 
and  is  well  named  the  Just.  Canova,  who  had  a 
great  affection,  almost  a  reverence,  for  this  statue, 
has  marked  on  the  floor  of  the  room  in  which  it  is 
placed  the  three  best  points  of  view  for  thorough 
appreciation  of  its  beauties. 

We  might  mention  other  important  relics  of 
Grecian  art  scattered  over  Europe.  The  Museum 
of  the  Hermitage  at  St.  Petersburg,  for  instance, 
which  long  possessed  a  beautiful  Chaste  Venus, 
given  to  Peter  the  Great  by  Pope  Clement  XL, 
a  Jupiter  Serapis,  a  small  statue  of  Hygeia,  the 
draperies  of  -which   are  excellent,   &c.  ;  has  lately 


GRECIAN  SCULFTUUE.  149 

acquired,  from  the  Campana  Museum,  a  valuable 
series  of  Nine  Muses,  all  Greek,  and  of  about  the 
same  size,  which  make  the  Russian  an  entirely 
unique  collection.  But  we  must  hasten  to  London, 
and  reverently  admire  those  most  marvellous  relics 
of  the  genius  of  the  Greeks,  exhibited  in  the  British 
Museum. 

The  Lycian  room  contains  the  remains  of  the 
ancient  city  of  Xanthus,  on  the  river  Xanthus  or 
Scamander,  in  Lycia,  which  was  immortalised  by 
Homer.  They  belong  to  the  epochs  included  between 
the  year  545  B.C.  and  the  Byzantine  Empire.  The 
most  ancient  are  bas-reliefs  from  the  Harpy  Tomb, 
which  stood  on  the  Acropolis,  on  the  origin  and 
meaning  of  which  various  conjectures,  founded  on 
mythology,  have  been  hazarded.  With  these  bas- 
reliefs  there  is  a  figure  of  the  Chimcsra,  that  fire- 
breathing  monster  whose  body  was  a  combination  of 
that  of  a  lion,  of  a  dragon,  and  of  a  goat.  A  native 
of  Lycia,  the  offspring  of  Typhon  and  Echidna,  and 
slain  by  Bellerophon,  this  fearful  creature  was  in 
reality  nothing  more  than  an  impersonation  of  a 
small  volcano  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Cragus. 
The  more  recent  bas-reliefs  are  Roman  works,  with 
which  we  have  nothing  to  do  at  present,  and  which 
merely  illustrate  the  different  conquests  of  Lycia 
and  her  changing  creeds.     The  principal  are  of  an 


150  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

intermediate  age.  They  come  from  what  is  simply- 
styled  the  Monument  of  Xanthus.  Sir  C.  Fellows, 
who  collected  them,  made  a  little  model  of  the 
original  block  in  painted  wood,  which  gives  the 
form,  size,  and  site,  and  by  means  of  which  an 
entire  lateral  wall  has  been  rebuilt  with  the  ruins. 
We  see  that  it  was  an  Iconic  peristyle  building, 
with  fourteen  columns,  running  round  a  solid  cella, 
and  the  statues  in  the  intercolumniations  placed  on 
a  base,  and  supporting  a  light  attic.  Two  sculp- 
tured friezes  decorated  the  upper  and  lower  part 
of  the  base.  Although  much  mutilated,  the  best 
preserved,  the  finest,  and  the  most  interesting  parts 
of  this  ruined  temple,  are  some  of  the  female 
statues,  which  alternate  with  the  columns  of  the 
circular  gallery.  The  heads,  hands,  and  feet  are 
wanting,  but  the  bodies,  the  arms,  and  the  legs  are 
admirably  proportioned,  the  action  is  full  of  grace, 
and  the  execution  very  superior.  Robed  in  a 
transparent  stuff  which  the  Romans  called  togce 
vitrece,  nebula  linea,  ventus  textilis  (robes  of  glass, 
clouds  of  linen,  wind  tissue),  they  are,  so  to  speak, 
chastely  nude.  Agile  and  slender,  they  seem  to 
cleave  the  air,  in  running  or  dancing.  Some  have 
at  their  feet  marine  emblems,  such  as  dolphins, 
crabs,  or  sea-bird  halcyons,  and  they  are  therefore 
supposed   to    form   the   escort  of  Latona,  on   her 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  151 

arrival  at  Xanthus,  with  her  children,  Artemis  and 
Apollo.  If  this  mojiuinent  of  Xanthus  be  the  trophy 
of  a  Persian  victory,  it  is  a  Grecian  work  of  art 
of  the  great  age  between  Pheidias  and  Lysippus. 
As  a  proof  of  this  assertion  we  may  refer  to  the 
Greek  inscriptions,  in  which  occur  some  verses  by 
the  poet  Simonides,  the  flatterer  of  tyrants  and 
princes  ;  and  also  to  the  style  and  the  perfection 
of  the  remains,  especially  of  the  statues,  which  are 
such  that  no  other  people  and  no  other  age  could 
have  produced  them. 

The  PJiigaleian  Saloon  is  so  called  because  it 
contains  two  friezes,  in  bas-relief,  which  adorned 
the  interior  of  the  cella,  or  sanctuary,  of  the  cele- 
brated temple  of  Apollo  Epicurius  (or  the  deliverer), 
built  on  Mount  Cotylion,  at  a  little  distance  from 
the  city  of  Phigaleia,  in  Arcadia.  One  of  these 
friezes  occupies  eleven  slabs  of  marble,  and  the 
other  twelve.  The  first  represents  the  Battle  of  the 
Centaurs  and  LapithcE,  the  latter  that  of  the  Greeks 
and  Amazons,  two  subjects  treated  again  and  again 
by  the  artists  of  heathen  antiquity,  because  they 
combined  beauty  of  form,  variety,  and  action.  To 
justify  the  interest  taken  in  these  Phigaleian  sculp- 
tures, it  is  enough  to  remember  that  they  belong 
to  the  age  of  Pericles,  which  is  to  say  that  they  are 
contemporary  with  the  sculptures  of  the  Parthenon. 


152  OliECIAN  SCUIA'TURE. 

But  the  interest  of  the  Phigaleian  saloon  really 
centres  in  some  other  antique  remains,  which  would 
have  been  better  placed  in  the  Lycian  room  with 
the  marbles  of  Xanthus.  It  is  well  known  how  the 
second  queen,  Artemisia,  widow  of  her  brother 
JMausolus,  King  of  Caria,  had  a  celebrated  tomb 
raised  in  honour  of  her  brother-husband,  in  the 
town  of  Halicarnassus.  about  353  years  B.C.  This 
monument  was  at  first  called  Pteron,  but  sub- 
sequently Mausoleum,  and  from  it  all  future  tombs 
took  their  name.  It  was  considered  one  of  the 
seven  wonders  of  the  world,  and  was  built  by 
Phiteus  and  Satyrus,  and  adorned  by  five  sculp- 
tors, viz.,  Pythis,  who  made  a  quadriga  for  the  top  ; 
Briaxis,  who  sculptured  the  bas-reliefs  for  the 
northern  side  ;  Timotheus,  those  for  the  southern  ; 
Leochares,  those  for  the  western  ;  and  the  cele- 
brated Scopas,  or  Praxiteles,  those  for  the  eastern 
side.  The  date  of  the  monument  and  their  names 
prove  that  all  these  artists  belonged  to  the  latter 
days  of  the  great  Athenian  school.  But  they 
neither  copied  Pheidias  nor  his  style.  Working  for 
Asia,  they  assumed  a  different  manner  to  their 
fellow  countrymen  and  contemporaries.  As  M. 
Viollet-le-Duc  remarks,  they  might  have  been  called 
.'omantic  at  that  early  date.  In  the  conquests  of 
[he  Romans   and  Parthians,  the  Maiisolcuin  shared 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  ir.3 

the  fate  of  all  buildings  raised  by  Grecian  genius. 
We  know  positively  that  in  1322  the  knights  of 
Rhodes  employed  its  walls  and  fragments  in  the 
construction  of  the  castle  of  Halicarnassus,  which, 
under  the  victorious  Turks,  soon  became  the  for- 
tress of  Boudroum.  In  1846  they  were  presented 
by  the  Sultan  Abd-ul-Medjid  to  Sir  Stratford 
Canning,  and  by  him  to  the  British  Museum. 
Since  then  Mr.  Charles  Newton  has  joined  together 
the  fragments  of  one  of  the  horses  of  the  colossal 
quadriga  by  Pythis,  and  of  a  statue  supposed  to  be 
Iconic,  or  a  portrait  of  Mausolus. 

In  passing  to  the  Athenian  room,  the  Elgin 
Saloon,  which  may  be  called  the  true  sanctuary  of 
the  British  Museum,  we  must  briefly  name  certain 
objects  which  are  classed  with  the  marbles  of  the 
Parthenon.  They  are  worthy  of  notice,  not  only 
because  they  are  all  Grecian,  and  mostly  Athenian, 
but  because  of  their  great  value  as  monuments 
of  the  architecture  and  sculpture  of  the  ancients. 
Amongst  various  remains  of  temples,  altars,  and 
tombs,  we  must  name  a  capital  and  a  piece  of  the 
shaft  of  a  Doric  column  of  the  Parthenon.  These 
two  fragments  give  a  just  idea,  without  measure- 
ment, of  the  proportions  of  the  temple  of  the 
Acropolis  of  Athens.*     A  capital  and  some  frag- 

•  To  explain  how  a  single   fragment  of  the  mins  'if  a  Grecian 
f 


154  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

merits  of  the  shaft  and  base  of  an  Ionic  column  of 
the  portico  of  The  Erectheum,  which  surrounded 

temple  can  give  an  idea  of  tlie  whole,  we  must  remember  that 
certain  constant  principles  were  followed  in  the  religious  architecture 
of  Greece.  We  will  give  a  brief  summary  of  an  explanation  of  this 
fact  from  the  Course  of  Architecture  by  M.  Beale. 

"At  first,  when  Hellenic  society  was  still  in  its  infancy,  the 
temple  was  but  a  shelter  for  the  god,  and  as  clumsy  as  himself. 
Upright  trunks  of  trees  were  stuck  into  the  ground  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  form  a  long  square,  then  a  beam  was  transversely  laid  along 
the  two  elongated  sides,  to  support  the  sloping  rafters  of  the  roof. 
The  trunks  being  liable  to  decay,  both  at  the  end  in  the  earth  and 
that  under  the  beam,  cubes  of  stone  were  inserted  at  either  extremity. 
Little  by  little  columns  in  stone  or  marble  supplanted  the  frail  and 
rough  trunk,  the  stone  dice  at  the  top  and  bottom  became  respec- 
tively the  capital  and  the  base  of  the  column.  The  lateral  beam 
changed  into  the  architrave,  frieze,  and  entablature.  The  points  or 
projections  of  the  rafters  of  the  roof  became  the  triglyphs,  and  the 
hollow  spaces  between  them  the  metopes.  By  sloping  to  the  right 
and  left  in  obtuse  angles,  the  roof  formed  the  triangular  pediment 
on  either  fa9ade,  and,  finally,  the  ornaments  of  detail,  such  as 
bucrania,  (heads  of  victims,)  egg-mouldings,  palm-leaves,  rosettes, 
mea-nders,  etc. ,  had  all  been  employed  by  nature  before  they  were 
borrowed  by  art. 

"  The  orders  then  developed  themselves  historically  by  natural 
combinations.  First  came  the  Toric  order,  or  that  of  the  rough  and 
vigorous  Dorian  race,  which,  like  them,  was  strong,  austere,  and 
masculine.  Then  the  Ionic  order,  that  of  the  soft  and  voluptuous 
race  of  Ionia,  was  pleasing,  elegant,  and  feminine.  The  flutings  of 
the  small  columns  may  be  likened  to  the  plaits  of  dresses,  and  the 
festoons  of  the  capitals  to  wreathed  head-dresses.  Finally  the 
Corinthian  order,  that  of  refined  civilization,  combined  the 
characteristics  of  the  two  sexes  and  the  two  races  in  its  complex 
beauty. 

"  This  primitive  type  became  fixed,  and  it  was  in  accordance  with 
it  that  all  the  temples  of  Greece  were  erected,  differing  from  each 
other  merely  in  size  and  amount  of  decoration.     But  the  parts  always 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  15c 

the  double  temple,  dedicated  to  Minerva  Polias 
and  to  Pandrosus  (the  daughter  of  Cecrops  whc 
kept  the  secret  of  the  birth  of  Erechtheus).  These 
are  precious  relics  of  Grecian  architecture,  very 
finely  finished,  which  prove  the  exquisite  manner 
in  which  every  part  of  this  temple  by  Pheidias  was 
worked  up.  It  contained  one  of  his  three  Pallases, 
the  Polias,  which  was  no  less  celebrated  than  the 
Lemnian  and  the  Warrior  Pallas ;  some  fragments 
of  Propylaea  from  the  temple  of  Nike  Apteros 
(or  victory  without  wings),  from  the  temple  of 
Theseus,  from  the  tomb  of  Agamemnon,  at 
Mycens,  etc. 

Amongst  various  inscriptions  of  laws  and  annals, 
there  is  one  styled  the  Sigean.  It  relates  to  the 
presentation  of  three  vessels,  a  cup,  a  saucer,  and  a 
strainer,  for  the  Pjytaneiim  or  hall  of  justice  at 
Sigaeum,  a  little  town  of  the  Troad,  in  which  was 
the  tomb  of  Achilles  and  Patrocles.  This  insigni- 
ficant inscription  is  valuable  on  account  of  its  being 
written  in  the  most  ancient  Greek  characters,  in  the 
style  called  boicstrophedon,  because  the  lines  follow 


remained  in  accordance  with  the  whole,  both  in  their  proportions 
and  in  their  style.  As  a  fossil  fragment  of  an  antediluvian  animal 
gives  a  geologist  a  measure  of  the  whole,  so  any  portion  of  a 
Grecian  temple  gives  the  size  of  the  edifice,  the  architectural  order 
adopted,  and  even  the  amount  of  general  decoration  employed." 


156  GRECIAN  SCULPTUBE. 

each  other  in  the  same  direction  as  furrows  made 
by  an  ox  in  ploughing,  that  is  to  say,  one  line  goes 
from  left  to  right,  and  the  next  back  from  right  to 
left  ;  "  like  those,"  says  Pausanias,  "  who  run  the 
double  stadium,"  and  so  on  to  the  end  of  the  page 
or  tablet.  Inscriptions  in  this  primitive  form  of 
Grecian  writing  are  very  rare. 

Amongst  the  sculptures  which  do  not  belong  to 
the  Parthenon,  we  must  single  out  for  admiration 
and  study  a  much  mutilated  colossal  statue  of 
Bacchus,  which  was  on  the  top  of  the  choragic 
monument  raised  to  the  memory  of  Thrasyllus,  by 
the  remorseful  Athenians,  who  had  put  him  to 
death  after  the  naval  victory  of  Arginusae  ;  and 
still  more  must  we  admire  a  well-preser\'ed  ar- 
chitectural statue  which  all  may  gaze  upon  in  its 
primitive  perfection.  It  is  one  of  the  four  caryatides 
which  supported  the  little  roof  under  which  the 
olive-tree  of  Minei-va  was  sheltered  in  the  temple 
of  Pandrosus.  It  has  been  placed  on  the  capital  of 
a  Doric  column  of  the  Propylaea.  It  is  on  foot, 
upright  and  immovable,  but  beneath  the  heavy 
falling  folds  of  the  long  tunic,  one  knee  moves 
slightly,  and  by  suggesting  life  and  animation, 
breaks  and  gives  a  kind  of  undulation  to  the 
general  outline  of  the  body.  This  trifling  action 
marks  the  great  difference  betv/een  Egyptian  art. 


GliECJAN  SCULPTUnE.  157 

servilely  submissive  to  an  inflexible  creed,  and  that 
of  Greece,  which  was  as  free  from  dogmas  and  as 
independent  as  the  democracy  of  Athens. 

An  emblem  of  calm  power,  this  admirable 
caryatid  might  be  taken  for  a  Kancphora,  for  she 
seems  to  bear  the  capital  which  crowns  her,  and  the 
entablature  supported  by  this  capital,  with  as  much 
ease  and  grace  as  if  it  were  a  mere  amphora.  This 
statue  is  of  the  same  age  and  style,  and  perhaps 
from  the  same  hand,  as  the  Pallas  Polias  ;  in  any 
case  it  is  worthy  of  the  author  of  the  latter,  the 
divine  Pheidias. 

We  now  come  to  the  marbles  of  the  Parthenon. 

In  the  centre  of  the  Acropolis  (upper  town)  or 
fortress  of  Athens,  stood  the  temple  of  the  guardian 
goddess,  Athena,  from  whom  the  city  took  its  name. 
Dedicated  to  the  Virgin  Minerv^a  (Parthenos),  it  was 
called  the  Parthenon  (or  Virgin's  Chamber).  The 
Persians  under  Xerxes,  w^ho  were  iconoclasts  like  the 
jews,  utterly  demolished  it,  when,  before  the  battle 
of  Salamis,  Themistocles  withdrew  the  Athenian 
troops  to  their  ships.  After  the  glorious  victories  of 
the  Median  war,  when  Athens,  her  democracy  re- 
stored, occupied  the  first  rank  amongst  the  towns 
and  states  of  Greece,  Pericles  had  the  Parthenon  re- 
built (about  440  B.C.).  The  site  and  proportions  of 
the  ancient  temple,  which  was  called  Hccatompedon, 


158  GBECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

because  the  facade  measured  a  hundred  Greek 
feet,  were  retained,  but  the  form  and  decorations  of 
the  later  building  were  entirely  new.  Ictinus  and 
Callicrates  were  charged  with  its  construction,  and 
Pheidias,  who  had  been  elected  president  of  public 
works  by  the  popular  voice,  was  commissioned  to 
supply  the  ornaments.  He  cannot  have  executed 
this  great  work  alone.  When  we  remember  how 
many  statues  he  made  for  the  temples  of  Greece, 
we  cannot  doubt  that  he  received  help  from  his 
colleagues  and  pupils.  But  Pheidias  in  the  Parthe- 
non, like  Raphael  in  the  Stanze  and  Loggie  of  the 
Vatican,  had  supreme  control  over  the  works  :  he 
chose  the  subjects,  drew  the  plans,  the  pediments 
the  metopes,  the  friezes  ;  corrected,  touched  up, 
and  finished  the  works  of  his  helpers,  and  himself 
chiselled  the  chief  figures  of  the  large  compositions. 
The  colossal  Pallas  Promachos,  or  Warrior, 
which  occupied  the  most  prominent  part  of  the 
Acropolis  on  a  high  pedestal,  and  which  rivalled 
that  great  Zeus  Olympms  which  was  accepted  as 
his  image  by  the  king  of  the  gods  himself,*  was 
evidently  from  the  hand  of  Pheidias  ;  because  on  the 

*  Jupiter  himself  approved  this  work  ;  for  when  it  was  finished, 
Pheidias  entreated  the  £od  to  give  him  some  token  if  he  were 
satisfied ;  and  it  is  related  that  a  thunderbolt  immediately  struck 
the  pavement  of  the  temple  on  the  spot  where  a  bronze  urn  is  still 
to  be  seen.       Pausanias,  Eli..e,  chap,  xi.) 


GRECIAN  SCULPTUBE.  \b°> 

regis  of  the  goddess  who  sprung,  not  from  the  brain 
of  Jupiter,  but  from  his  own  genius,  he  has  inscribed 
his  own  portrait  by  way  of  signature.* 

Some  Anytus  (artists  are  no  less  intolerant  Oi 
each  other  than  theologians)  charged  him  with 
impiety,  as  the  son  of  the  sculptor  Sophroniscus 
was  afterwards  accused.  Pheidias  had  to  flee  his 
ungrateful  country,  and  thirty  years  before  Socrates 
drank  the  hemlock  he  died  in  exile.  But  his  work 
was  finished,  and  when  the  few  last  fragments  have 
crumbled  into  dust  in  the  course  of  ages,  Pheidias 
will  still  be  immortal.  As  long  as  the  traditions  of 
the  human  race  are  preserved  upon  our  earth,  he 
will  retain  the  name  bestowed  upon  him  by  the 
admiration  of  the  Greeks — he  will  be  the  "  Homer 
of  Sculpture." 

Unfortunately  the  natural  ravages  of  twenty- 
three  centuries  have  not  alone  wrought  havoc  in  the 
works  of  Pheidias  which  adorned  the  Parthenon. 
Man  has  too  much  aided  the  destructive  action  of 
time.  No  corner  of  the  earth  was  richer  than 
Attica  in  monuments  of  art  ;  no  corner  of  the  earth 
was  oftener  or  more  cruelly  devastated  by  all  the 
enemies  of  art,  by  war,  conquest,  and  the  fanaticism 

*  At  the  foot  of  his  Jupiter  Olympms,  which,  hke  the  Warrior 
Minerva,  was  a  chryselephantine  statue,  that  is,  one  formed  of  gold 
and  ivory,  wa?  inscribed  :  "Pheidias,  Athenian,  son  of  Charmides, 
made  me." 


100  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

of  religious  sects.  The  destruction  of  the  buildings 
of  Athens  must  have  begun  with  the  conquest  of 
the  Romans  under  Mummius,  Metellus,  and  Sylla 
who  laid  a  desecrating  hand  on  all  the  temples  of 
Greece,  that  they  might  accumulate  a  promiscuous 
collection  of  spoils  in  those  of  Rome.  Under  the 
Romans  again,  when  the  double  throne  of  the 
empire  was  under  Christian  sway,  the  monuments 
of  Greece,  especially  the  temples,  fell  a  prey  to  the 
rage  of  the  first  converts,  who,  in  their  blind 
fanaticism,  broke  all  the  idols  and  other  objects  of 
heathen  worship.  A  third  and  terrible  devastation 
took  place  during  the  heresy  of  the  iconoclasts, 
which  was  rampant  in  the  Byzantine  empire  from 
the  fifth  to  the  eighth  century.  Then  came  the 
crusades,  and  the  conquest  of  Greece,  and  taking 
of  Constantinople  under  Baldwin  of  Flanders  (1204). 
These  barbarians  of  the  West,  who  broke  in  pieces 
the  Zeus  Olympiiis  and  the  Hera  of  Samos,  until 
then  preserved  in  the  city  of  Constantine,  did  not  of 
course  spare  the  Pallas  of  Athens.  And,  lastly, 
v.'hen  Roger  de  Flor  and  his  Aragonese  adventurers 
took  Attica  from  the  Grecian  empire  (1312J,  when 
the  Venetians  took  it  from  the  Aragonese  (1370), 
and  when  Mahomet  II.  wrested  it  from  the 
Venetians,  we  can  imagine  that  no  class  of  pillage  or 
devastation  was  spared.     But  the  conquest  of  the 


GMECIAN  SCULPTURE.  ifil 

zealous    Turkish     iconoclasts    was    not     the    hist 
calamity  which  fell   upon  the   city  and   temple  of 
Pallas.    The  Venetians  reconquered  Greece  in  1687, 
and    were    not    expelled    from    it    by    the    Turks 
until  17 1 5,  after  many  bloody  battles,  and  when  in 
1821    all    Greece    rose  against    her   Egyptian  and 
Turkish  masters,  and   during  the   nine  years  that 
the  war  oi  independence  lasted,  until  the   French 
expediton  in  1828,  there  was  not  a  town  which  did 
not  have  to  resist  assaults,  not  a  building   which 
was  not  converted  into  a  fortress.     Situated  as  it 
was,   in    the    Acropolis,  the    Parthenon    could    not 
escape  the  common  doom,  and  the  bullets  of  Islam 
destroyed  all  that  had  been  spared  by  the  Turks 
of  Selim    and  Mahomet,  the  Venetians,  the  Ara- 
gonese,  the   crusaders,   the   Byzantine    iconoclasts, 
the  bigoted  Christians,  and  the  barbarous  Romans. 
France,  the  disinterested  liberator  of  Greece,  might 
justly    have    claimed    the    privilege    of    reverently 
collecting  the  remains  of  the   Parthenon   she  had 
freed  ;  but  the  English  were  before  her,  not  in  the 
service  rendered,  but  in  carrying  off  the  prize.     We 
know  that  during  his  embassy  to  Constantinople, 
from    1799   to    1807,   Lord  Elgin,  profiting  by  the 
weakness  of  Sclim  III.,  whose   policy  and   actions 
he  guided,  pillaged  the  temples  of  Greece  without 
ceremony,  although   not  without  excuse,  and   took 

M 


162  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

possession  of  all  the  sculptured  decorations  which 
still  remained  in  the  Parthenon.  Though  satirized 
by  the  personal  enmity  of  Byron,  Lord  Elgin 
brought  to  England  the  produce  of  his  successful 
pillage,  and  the  marbles  of  the  Parthenon  were 
then  placed  in  the  room  in  the  British  Museum 
which  is  named  after  their  ravisher. 

To  illustrate  what  these  precious  spoils  were 
before  they  were  torn  from  the  building  they 
decorated,  two  small  models  of  the  temple  of 
Minerva  have  been  placed  in  the  same  room.  One 
represents  the  Parthenon  as  a  whole,  as  it  was  in 
the  age  of  Pericles  ;  the  other,  what  it  has  been 
reduced  to  by  time  and  the  hand  of  man  ;  a  melan- 
choly heap  of  ruins  and  rubbish.  With  these 
models  before  our  eyes,  it  requires  but  little  atten- 
tion and  consideration  to  restore  everything  to  its 
place  in  our  imagination,  and  from  these  scattered 
fragments  entirely  to  rebuild  the  work  of  Pheidias. 

It  consists  of  three  principal  parts— the  frieze, 
the  metopes,  and  the  pediments.  The  exterior 
frieze  of  the  cella,  or  sanctuary,  inside  the  colonnade 
or  peristyle,  which  entirely  surrounded  the  cella, 
was  simply  called  the  frieze.  It  consists  of  a  long 
series  of  marble  slabs,  succeeding  each  other 
without  interruption,  of  equal  proportions,  all  sculp- 
tured in  bas-relief,  and   all  relating  to  one  subject, 


GE A CJA X  SC ULPTUn E. 


163 


so  that  it  is  easy  to  see  what  place  each  one  oc- 
cupied in  the  original  plan.  The  subject  is  the 
o-eneral  procession  of  the  grand  Panathenaic 
(Panathenaia)  fetes,  instituted  in  honour  of  Minerva, 
by  the  old  King  Erichthonius  (1500  B.C.),  when  the 
goddess  of  Athens  was  proclaimed  goddess  of 
all  Attica.     They  were  celebrated  once  every  four 


-'•■SUii^Jti' 


Fig.  32. — Gods.  Fig.  33.— Youug  Man. 

(Frieze  of  the  Parthenon.) 


years,  and  the  lesser  Panathenrex'  appointed  by 
Theseus  were  annual.  In  the  grand  fetes  a  rich 
peplos,  embroidered  by  the  maidens  of  Athens,  was 
presented  to  the  goddess.  It  was  borne  in  pomp  to 
the  temple,  on  a  ship  moved  by  hidden  machinery. 
Some  of  these  marble  slabs  are  wanting  in  the 
British    Museum    Collection  (we  have  one   in    the 


l()4 


GRECIAN  SVULPTUME. 


Louvre),  and  t!ieir  places  have  been  supplied  by 
plaster  casts  to  complete  the  series,  which  is 
arranged  in  the  Elgin  Saloon  in  the  same  order  as 
it  was  on  the  outside  of  the  cclla  of  the  temple  of 
Minerva. 

The  subjects  of  the  bas-reliefs  of  many  of  the  first 
of  the  slabs  are  gods  and  goddesses  or  deified  heroes, 


Fig.  34. — Cavp.lier. 


Fig.  35. — Cavaliers. 


(Frieze  of  the  Parthenon.) 


all  seated  in  pairs  :  Jupiter  and  Juno,  Ceres  and 
Triptolemus,  ^Esculapius  and  Hygeia,  Castor  and 
Pollux.  Trains  of  females  follow^  with  their  faces 
directed  to  the  gods  to  whom  they  are  carrying 
gifts.  Certain  of  the  directors  or  regulators  of  the 
procession  receive  the  presents  oft'ered  to  the  gods. 
After  the  females  come   the   victims    destined  for 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  165 

sacrifice,  the  chariots  and  charioteers,  the  metcsci, 
or  strangers  resident  in  Athens,  bearing  on  their 
shoulders  a  tray  filled  with  fruits,  cakes,  and 
other  offerings  ;  lastly  came  the  horsemen,  young 
men  of  high  rank  from  the  towns  of  Attica,  un- 
armed and  wearing  the  cJilamys  only.  The  groups 
of  horsemen  and  women,  the  former  especially,  are 
certainly  the  best  part  of  the  frieze  of  the  Par- 
thenon. Nothing  can  exceed  the  variety  and 
boldness  of  the  attitudes  of  horses  and  men.  The 
elegance  of  the  forms,  the  accuracy  of  the  propor- 
tions, the  powerful  modelling,  the  delicacy  and 
finish  of  the  chiselling,  combine  to  make  them  the 
masterpiece,  the  unattainable  ideal  of  the  art  of 
bas-relief. 

The  sculptures  of  the  great  external  frieze  were 
called  metopes,  because  they  occupied  the  spaces 
between  the  architectural  ornaments,  called  tri- 
glyphs,  which  surmounted  the  entablature  of  the 
colonnade.  The  metopes  w^ere  square  niches,  which 
formed  a  kind  of  frame  for  the  subject  represented. 
They  were  painted  in  antique  red  (rosso  antico), 
and  the  intervening  triglyphs  were  blue.  As  these 
niches  were,  on  the  one  hand,  not  deep  enough  for 
statues,  and  on  the  other,  too  high  up  and  far  back 
for  bas-reliefs  to  be  visible,  they  were  supplied  with 
ornaments  in  high  relief  which  were  of  a  medium 


166 


GRECIAN  SCULPIURE. 


character  between  full  and  low  relief.  These 
metopes,  of  which  there  are  sixteen,  all  represent 
episodes  of  the  conflict  between  the  Centaurs  and 
Lapithae,  or  rather  between  the  Centaurs  and 
Athenians  who,  under  Theseus,  joined  the  Lapithse, 


Fig.  36.— Metope  of  the  Parthenon. 

a  people  of  Thessaly  then  g-overned  by  King 
Pirithous  the  friend  of  Theseus,  for  the  destruction 
of  the  Centaurs,  a  race  of  the  valleys  of  Ossa  and 
Pelion,  the  licentious  robber  sons  of  Ixion  and 
the  Phantom  or  cloud,  who  were    supposed   to  be 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  167 

half  men  and  half  horses,  because  like  the  gauchos 
and  pampas  of  South  America,  they  passed  their 
lives  on  their  steeds.  In  the  greater  number  of  the 
metopes,  in  which  the  struggle  is  between  one  Cen- 
taur and  one  Athenian,  the  Athenians  are  victorious, 
in  accordance  with  the  traditions  of  the  heroic  ages 
of  Athens.  In  some  few  the  Centaurs  have  the 
victory,  and  in  others  again  it  is  still  doubtful. 

It  is  believed  that  the  whole  series  of  the  me- 
topes is  the  work  of  Alcamenes,  the  beloved  disciple 
of  Pheidias,  because,  according  to  Pausanias,  he 
placed  Centaurs  in  the  pediment  of  the  temple  of 
Olympus.  As  they  were  more  exposed  to  destruc- 
tion, on  account  of  their  form,  than  the  frieze,  the 
metopes  of  the  Parthenon  are  much  more  mutilated 
and  disfigured  ;  and  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  in 
looking  at  them,  that  they  were  not,  like  the  frieze, 
placed  opposite  to  and  within  easy  range  of  the 
spectator,  but  along  the  top  of  the  temple,  to  be 
looked  at  from  below. 

Having  two  entrances,  the  Parthenon  had  two 
facades,  and  therefore  two  pediments  in  the  tri- 
angular tympanums.  The  facades  turning  towards 
the  east  and  west,  as  was  customary  in  Grecian 
temples,  have  been  named  after  the  cardinal 
points  opposite  to  them.  The  eastern  pediment 
represents    the    Birth   of  Pallas,  when  she   sprung 


1G8  ORECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

fully  armed  from  the  brain  of  Zeus,  under  the 
hatchet  of  Vulcan.  The  western  pediment  repre- 
sented the  Dispute  of  Poseidon  and  Pallas  for  the 
honour  of  giving  name  to  the  native  city  of 
Cecrops.*  They  agreed  that  the  producer  of  the 
most  useful  invention  should  be  the  victor.  Po- 
seidon formed  a  horse,  and  Pallas  caused  an  olive- 
tree  to  spring  up  ;  the  latter,  being  the  emblem 
of  peace,  Athene  won  the  prize.  Both  subjects 
stood  out  from  a  red  ground  like  the  metopes,  and 
the  artist  so  arranged  them  that  each  statue  had 
its  due  share  of  light  and  shade  every  hour  of  the 
day.     I   say  the  pediments  represented,  not   repre- 

*  "  You  then  come  to  the  temple  called  the  Parthenon.  The  his- 
tory of  the  birth  of  Minerva  fills  one  pediment,  and  her  dispute  with 
Neptune  about  Attica,  the  other."  (Pausanias,  Attica,  chap,  xxiv.) 
With  the  exception  of  a  few  details  apropos  of  the  fable  of  the 
Griffins  and  Arimaspi,  this  is  all  that  the  artist  rhetorician  of  the 
second  century  of  Rome  tells  us  of  the  Parthenon.  Neither 
^heidias,  Ictinus,  nor  Callicrates,  are  even  mentioned.  Such  coldness 
and  indifference  is  astonishing.  A  few  lines  further  on,  Pausanias 
adds:  "Near  the  temple  is  a  bronze  statue  of  Apollo  Pa.nopos 
(from  iTapvoi\/,  a  locust),  said  to  be  the  work  of  Pheidias.  It  is  sur- 
named  Parnopos,  because  Apollo  promised  to  deliver  the  country 
from  the  locusts  which  were  wasting  it.  We  know  that  he  kept  his 
word,  but  we  do  not  know  by  what  means.  I  have  seen  the  locusts 
destroyed  on  Mount  Sipylus  three  times,  and  each  time  in  a  different 
manner.  The  first  were  carried  away  by  a  violent  w  ii;d,  the  second 
were  destroyed  by  heavy  rain,  and  the  third  perished  from  cold. 
All  this  happened  in  my  day."  This  is  the  way  in  which  the 
celebrated  traveller  of  Caesarea,  the  great  critic  of  ancient  times, 
judged  works  of  art  and  spoke  of  a  statue  by  Pheidias  ! 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  169 

sent,  for  alas !  we  only  know  from  history  and 
conjectures  what  were  the  subjects  and  who  were 
the  personages  who  figured  in  th  ^m.  The  most 
masterly  scholarship  would  fail  to  construct  one 
distinct  scene  from  the  ruins  which  were  collected 
from  the  temple  and  are  exhibited  in  London. 
Not  only  are  the  remaining  figures  mere  fragments, 
but  many,  and  those  the  chief,  have  entirely  dis- 
appeared in  the  battles,  the  assaults,  the  ravages,  of 
which  the  city  of  Pallas  was  so  often  the  theatre 
and  the  victim.  We  will  tiy  and  give  some  idea 
of  the  magnitude  of  these  irreparable  losses. 

I  do  not  know  the  exact  difference  between  the 
old  Athenian  and  the  modern  English  foot  mea- 
sure ;  but  it  is  supposed  that  the  facade  of  the  old 
Hecatoinpedon,  or  at  least  of  the  tympanum  of  the 
pediments,  being  exactly  one  hundred  English  feet 
long,  might  have  been  so  called  before  the  age  of 
Pericles.  Well,  then,  to  confine  myself  to  the  eastern 
pediment  {the  Birth  of  Pallas),  there  remain,  out 
of  all  the  figures  which  composed  it,  but  five  frag- 
ments of  the  left  angle,  in  length  thirty-three  feet, 
and  four  fragments  of  the  right  angle,  in  length 
twenty-seven  feet.  A  most  careful  search  has  been 
made,  but  not  a  vestige  has  been  discovered  of  all 
that  filled  the  forty  feet  in  the  middle  ;  that  is  to 
say,    the     principal    scene.     Zeus,    surrounded    by 


170  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

the  great  gods,  is  altogether  broken,  destroyed, 
annihilated  !  Art,  like  Rachel  in  the  Scriptures, 
must  weep  for  ever,  for  she  too  has  lost  her  beloved 
children,  her  noblest  productions  ;  she  too  can 
never  be  comforted.  Et  noluit  consolari*  Let  us  now 
return  to  the  fragments  which  remain  to  us,  mere 
fragments  of  almost  shapeless  stone,  yet  more  pre- 
cious in  spite  of  their  terribly  mutilated  condition 
than  the  richest  diamonds  of  Golconda.  According 
to  Otfried  Muller,  who  was  followed  by  M.  M.  Beul^ 
and  Menard,  the  subject  of  the  eastern  pediment 
is   taken  from   a  hymn    of   Homer,   in   which  the 

*  When  the  Marquis  of  Nointel  was  sent  as  ambassador  to 
Constantinople,  in  1674,  he  had  good  drawings  made  by  Carrey, 
the  pupil  of  Lebrun,  of  the  frieze,  the  metopes,  and  the  two 
pediments,  and  sent  tliem  to  Paris  to  be  carefully  engraved.  The 
building  was  already  much  injured  but  still  complete.  It  was  at 
the  attack  of  the  Venetians,  under  Morosini,  in  1687,  that  the 
Parthenon  suffered  most.  Having  heard  that  the  Turks  concealed 
their  war  material  in  the  temple  of  Minerva,  the  Venetian  general 
had  bombs  thrown  into  it,  and  on  the  night  of  the  26th  of  September, 
a  terrible  explosion  burst  open  the  cella,  and  cut  the  Parthenon  in 
two.  When,  rather  later,  Morosini  was  compelled  to  abandon  his 
enterprise,  he  wished  to  carry  off  the  richest  trophies  to  Venice. 
But  the  removal  of  the  principal  statues  was  so  hastily  and 
awkwardly  effected,  that  they  were  thrown  to  the  earth  and  broken 
to  pieces.  (M.  Leon  de  Laborde,  "Athens  in  the  fifteenth, 
sixteenth,  and  seventeenth  centuries.") 

It  was  then  at  the  end  of  the  learned  and  polished  seventeenth 
century,  in  the  middle  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.,  fourteen  years 
after  the  death  of  Moliere,  and  seven  years  before  the  birth  of 
Voltaire,  that  this  supreme  deed  of  barbarism  was  perpetrated,  the 
destruction  of  the  central  figures  of  both  pediments  of  the  Parthenon  ! 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 


171 


sovereign  of  gods  and  men  is  introduced  presenting 
his  daughter  to  the  other  divinities.  "  All  the 
immortals  were  struck  with  admiration  when  the 
ardent  goddess  flung  herself  before  her  divine  sire, 
with  the  aegis  in  his  hand.  The  great  Olympus 
trembled  beneath  the  pointed  lance  of  the  warrior 


Fig-  37- — Heads  of  Horses.     (From  the  Parthenon.) 

maiden  with  the  piercing  glance  ;  the  earth  re- 
sounded far  and  wide ;  the  sea  held  back  her 
waves  ;  the  purple  billows  quivered  ;  the  brilliant 
son  of  Hyperion  reined  in  his  swift  steeds  for  a 
time,  *  *  *  and  the  wise  Zeus  rejoiced."  As  we 
have  before  stated,  there  remain  nine  fragments  of 
this  pediment,  five  from  the  left  side  and  four  from 
the  right.     Of  the  left  beginning  at  the  extreme 


172  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

point  of  the  angle,  we  find  first  •.  the  head  of 
Hyperion  (Hehos,  the  sun)  leaving  the  sea  in  the 
early  morning,  his  arms  raised  from  the  water 
holding  the  reins  of  his  chargers  ;  then  two  heads 
of  the  horses  of  the  sun,  rising  from  the  waves  ; 
then  Theseus,  the    Athenian  hero,  half-recumbent 


Fig.  38.^ — Theseus.     (From  the  Parthenon.) 

on  a  rock,  covered  with  the  skin  of  a  lion,  and 
imitating  the  attitude  of  Hercules  ;  then  a  group 
of  two  goddesses  on  low  seats,  which  are  alike  in 
their  construction.  They  are  supposed  to  be  Per- 
sephone and  Demeter ;  one  of  them  leans  her  head 
on  the  shoulder  of  the  other,  that  her  figure  may 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  173 

be  lower.  Then  rising  gradually  higher,  to  suit  the 
height  of  the  tympanum,  a  statue  of  Iris,  the 
messenger  of  the  gods,  who,  with  her  veil  inflated 
by  the  wind,  appears  in  haste  to  execute  her 
mission  of  communicating  to  the  world  the  Intel- 
ligence  of  the  birth  of  Athena.  Passing  over  the 
deplorable  break  of  forty  feet  in  the  centre,  we  find 
successively,  in  the  right  angle  beginning  at  the 
highest  point :  the  torso  of  a  statue  supposed 
to  be  a  winged  Victory,  the  wings  of  which  were 
doubtless  of  bronze,  for  the  holes  on  the  shoulders 
in  which  they  were  fastened  to  the  marble  may 
still  be  seen  ;  then  in  two  fragments,  the  famous 
group  called  the  three  Farces;  one  by  herself  is 
seated,  with  her  feet  tucked  under  her  seat,  like 
a  spinner  at  a  distaff;  the  other  two,  connected, 
repose  on  a  Thalamos,  onis  resting  against  the 
bosom  of  the  other,  so  as  to  suit  the  slope  of  the 
angle,  like  Ceres  and  Proserpine  on  the  opposite 
side ;  lastly,  the  head  of  one  of  the  horses  belong- 
ing to  the  chariot  of  Selene  (night),  which  is  plung- 
ing into  the  ocean  at  the  extreme  end  of  the  angle, 
and  corresponds  with  the  car  of  Hyperion  on  the 
left.  I  do  not  know  if  the  marvellous  group  of 
three  women  really  represents  the  three  Parcse. 
If  so,  it  will  justify  my  remark  in  speaking  of  the 
picture  of  the  Fates,  by  Michael  Angelo,  that  the 


174  OB  E  CI  AN  SCULPTURE. 

Greeks,  in  their  excessive  love  of  the  beautiful, 
made  the  Parcce,  and  even  the  Furies,  not  old  and 
hideous  witches,  like  the  moderns,  but  beautiful 
and  powerful  matrons,  although  not  quite  so 
charming  as  the  young  virgins  who  represented 
the  Graces. 

The  subject  of  the  western  pediment  was  the 
dispute  of  Poseidon  and  Pallas.*  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  first  figure  on  the  left,  its  remains 
are  in  a  still  worse  condition  of  ruin  and  mutilation 
than  those  of  the  opposite  pediment.  Nothing  is 
preserved  but  a  shapeless  mass  of  fragments,  the 

*  Three  different  traditions  of  this  dispute  have  come  down  to 
us.  According  to  Herodotus  and  Pausanias,  Neptune  caused  a 
spring  of  salt  water  to  spring  from  the  Acropolis,  and  Minerva  made 
an  olive-tree  grow  up.  According  to  others — and  this  is  the  more 
generally  received  version — Neptune  and  Minerva,  the  one  with  a 
blow  from  a  trident,  the  other  from  a  spear,  produced  a  horse  and 
an  olive-tree  from  the  earth.  A  third  story  relates  that  Neptune 
created  a  wild  horse,  and  Minerva  tamed  it  by  putting  on  the  bit. 
This  is  why  the  latter  was  called  Hippia,  and  to  her  favourite 
Erectheus  was  attributed  the  honour  of  having  taught  men  the  use 
of  the  bridle  and  reins.  It  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  last 
subject  is  better  suited  than  the  other  two  to  the  picturesque 
arrangement  of  the  groups  of  a  pediment,  and  Carrey's  drawing 
authorizes  the  belief  that  Pheidias  adopted  it.  "The  meaning," 
says  M.  Louis  de  Ronchaud,  "is  the  same  as  that  of  the  tradition 
of  the  birth  of  the  olive.  The  defeat  of  brute  force  by  intelligent 
energy  is  more  strikingly  typified  than  in  the  myth  quoted  by 
Herodotus,  because  Minerva,  after  having  subjected  the  force  created 
in  opposition  to  her,  to  her  laws,  made  it  subservient  to  her  designs. 
Blind  impetuosity  is  converted  into  regulated  activity  under  the 
guidance  of  wisdom." 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 


175 


meaning  of  which  we  could  not  even  guess  without 
the  aid  of  history.  At  the  extreme  end  of  the  left 
angle,  resting  like  a  river  god  upon  his  urn,  is  the 
figure  of  Ilyssus,  a  small  stream  which  took  its  rise 
in  Mount  Hymettus,  and  ran  down  to  the  sea  by 
way  of  the  plain  south  of  Athens.     Pausanias  says 


Fig.  39.— The  Parcce.     (From  the  Parthenon.) 

that  it  was  dedicated  to  the  Muses.  This  admirable 
statue,  doubtless,  owed  the  good  fortune  of  being 
better  preserved  than  any  other  of  the  Parthenon 
to  its  well-sheltered  position.  Had  Michael  Angelo 
known  it,  he  would  doubtless  have  called  it,  as  well 
as  the  Torso  of  the  Belvedere,  his  master  in  sculp- 
ture, and  he  would  have  felt  its  outlines  with  loving 


176  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

hands  in  his  extreme  old  age.  After  this  immense 
figure  of  Ilyssus,  comes  the  colossal  torso  of  a 
man  called  Cecrops,  the  founder  of  Athens.  Then 
some  superior  fragments,  also  of  colossal  propor- 
tions, of  a  head  of  Pallas,  originally  wearing  a 
bronze  helmet,  and  with  eyes  of  coloured  stone  ;  then 
a  fragment  of  the  body  of  the  same  Pallas,  a  part 
of  the  chest  covered  with  the  aegis,  that  is  the  head 
of  Medusa,  with  the  serpents  in  bronze ;  then  a 
fragment  of  the  torso  of  Neptune  (Poseidon)  "of 
the  majestic  chest."  Then  the  torso  of  Nike 
Apteros,  or  Victory  without  Wings,  \\\io  was  thus 
represented  by  the  Athenians  to  indicate  that  they 
held  her  in  perpetuity,  and  she  could  never  desert 
them.  This  faithful  Victory  drew  the  car  on  which 
Minerva  was  to  ascend  to  Heaven,  after  her  victory 
over  Neptune.  Lastly,  at  the  right  angle  of  the 
pediment,  a  small  fragment  of  a  group  of  Latona 
and  her  Children. 

When  Marie  Joseph  Chenier  said  of  the  inspired 
blind  poet  of  Chios  : 

Brisant  des  potentats  la  couronne  ephemere, 
Trois  mille  ans  ont  passe  sur  la  cendre  d'Homere, 
Et,  depuis  trois  mille  ans,  Homere  respecte 
Est  jeune  encor  de  gloire  et  d'immortalite  ; 

he  had  before  his  mind  two  Homeric  poems  which 
had  been   preserved   without  alteration,  first  in  the 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 


Ill 


memory  of  men,  then  in  frail  writing,  and  lastly 
in  imperishable  printing.  The  arts  are  not  so 
fortunate  as  letters  ;  for,  inasmuch  as  their  works 
cannot  be  multiplied  by  copies,  and  a  single 
specimen  of  course  occupies  but  one  spot  in  the 
world,  neither  the  canvas  of  the  painter,  the 
marble  of  the  sculptor,  nor  the  pillars  and  vaults 


Fig.  40. — Torso. 

of  architecture,  can  resist  the  destructive  action  of 
time  as  well  as  printed  or  written  matter.  The 
Iliad  still  remains  complete,  and  the  less  aged  Par- 
thenon is  in  ruins.  Whilst  the  glory  of  Homer  rests 
on  the  imperishable  foundation  of  his  works, 
ruthless  time  and  sacrilegious  men  have  left  to 
Pheidias  nothing  but  pitiable  remains,  of  which  we 
may  say,  as  of  the  mutilated  body  of  Hippolytus  : 


Triste  objet  oil  des  Dieux  triomphe  la  colere, 
Et  que  meconnaitrait  I'ceil  meme  de  son  pere. 


N 


178  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

\^\xt  these  relics  are  so  beautiful,  so  wonderful,  so 
divine  ;  the  feeblest  imagination  can  so  readily  re- 
combine  and  complete  them  ;  they  address  the  soul 
in  language  so  lofty  and  profound  ;  they  awaken 
such  insatiable  curiosity,  such  fervent  admiration  ; 
they  justify  so  entirely  the  verdict  of  Cicero  on 
their  author — Menti  insidebat  idea  pulchritudinis — 
that  although  centuries  have  not  spared  him, 
Pheidias,  Hke  Homer, 

Est  jeune  encor  de  gloire  et  d'immortalite. 

I  could  not  speak  in  more  measured  terms 
of  the  marbles  of  the  Parthenon.  It  would  be 
culpable  neglect  of  duty  to  do  so.  I  should  feel 
that  I  was  as  sacrilegious  as  their  destroyers.  But 
I  must  remind  the  visitor  to  the  British  Museum, 
when  he  makes  his  sacred  pilgrimage  round  the 
Elio-n  room,  of  one  or  two  facts,  viz. :  the  mutilated 
metopes  are  not  now  seen  from  the  same  point  of 
view  as  when  they  occupied  the  entablature  of  the 
colonnade  ;  the  frieze,  which  is  in  parts  better  pre- 
served than  the  metopes,  does  not  present  the  same 
aspect  in  the  inside  of  a  room  as  it  did  in  the 
pronaos  of  the  temple,  round  the  outside  of  the 
cella;  and  lastly,  that  there  remain  fragments  only 
of  the  lateral  figures  of  either  pediment  ;  that  they 
were  the  least  important  in  the  groups,  and  that  the 
centre  or   principal  part   is   absolutely   wanting   in 


GRECIAN  SCULPTURE.  179 

both  facades.  If  these  incomplete  fragments, 
these  accessory  portions,  be  so  fervently  admired, 
so  passionately  worshipped,  wliat  would  be  felt 
before  the  figures  of  the  great  gods  of  the  centre, 
before  the  imposing  harmony  of  the  complete 
pediments,  "  in  which,"  says  M.  Menard,  "  each  per- 
fect detail  is  blended  in  the  general  excellence,  like 
individual  free  will  in  a  Grecian  city,  like  the  eternal 
laws,  which  are  gods,  in  the  concert  of  the  uni- 
verse ?" 

To  these  remarks  I  must  add  another.  The 
marbles  of  the  Parthenon  belong  to  that  supreme 
moment  in  the  history  of  the  arts  of  a  polished 
nation,  when  with  the  innocence  and  purity  of  the 
early  ages  were  combined  the  science,  the  grace,  and 
the  force  of  the  mature  epoch,  as  yet  without  any 
intermixture  of  the  faults  of  the  decadence.  For 
the  arts  of  Greece,  this  exceptional  moment  was 
the  age  of  Pericles.  Pheidias  is  the  connecting  link, 
he  lived  at  the  time  of  the  assimilation.  Something 
of  the  same  kind  would  have  occurred  had  Raphael 
more  nearly  resembled  Giotto  ;  Michael  Angelo, 
Nicolas  of  Pisa  ;  Palladio,  the  Gothic  architects  ;  the 
music  of  Mozart,  the  chorales  of  Luther  ;  in  a  word, 
had  masterpieces  always  retained  more  of  the  spirit 
of  early  efforts.  In  this  sense  the  sculptures  of 
Pheidias  appear  to  me  more  perfect  even  than  the 


180  GRECIAN  SCULPTURE. 

pictures  of  Raphael,  the  statues  of  Michael  Angelo, 
the  monuments  of  Palladio,  or  the  operas  of  Mozart. 
This  is  why  we  may  call  them  the  finest  works  of 
art  ever  produced  by  human  genius.  "  To  believe 
it  possible  to  surpass  them,"  says  Montesquieu,  will 
always  be  not  to  know  them." 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Greeks  of  the 
present  day,  seeing  the  ancient  temple  of  their 
Acropolis  despoiled  of  all  its  ornaments,  have  a 
right  to  curse  the  depredators.  But  when  it  is 
remembered  how  often  these  works  have  been  ill- 
treated,  how  totally  the  chief  statues  have  been 
destroyed,  how  much  the  others  have  been  muti- 
lated, and  the  danger  the  latter  were  in  of  being 
destroyed  in  their  turn  ;  when  they  consider  that 
these  precious  relics  of  art  are  now  in  a  place  of 
safety,  in  the  centre  of  artistic  Europe  ;  the  wish, 
and  almost  the  right  to  reproach  the  English  for 
dismantling  their  temple  must  pass  away.  And  if 
a  regret  has  marred  the  intense  pleasure  of  my 
own  admiration  in  my  many  and  reverent  visits  to 
the  marbles  of  Pheidias,  it  is  that  the  thief  who  stole 
them  was  not  a  Frenchman,  and  that  the  receiving 
house  which  took  them  in  was  not  the  Museum  of 
Paris. 


181 


CHAPTER  V. 

ROMAN   SCULPTURE. 

OUR  remarks  in  a  former  work  on  Roman  paint- 
ing apply  equally  to  sculpture.  Conquered 
and  subdued,  reduced  to  the  condition  of  a  mere 
province  of  the  Republic,  and  subsequently  of  the 
Empire,  Greece  was  nevertheless  the  instructress 
of  Rome.  It  was  her  sons  who  introduced  all  the 
arts  and  cultivated  them  in  Rome.  We  have 
already  noticed  that  the  famous  groups  of  the 
Laocoon  and  the  Toi'o  Farnese,  although  produced 
after  the  Roman  conquest,  were  executed  by  Greeks 
and  in  Greece.  Cicero,  Pliny,  Quintilian,  Pausanias, 
have  transmitted  to  us  the  names  of  all  the  great 
sculptors  of  Hellas  ;  they  do  not  mention  a  single 
native  of  Rome.  The  Romans  borrowed  theii 
subjects,  and  in  arts  as  in  letters,  and  in  everything 
else,  they  always  cared  more  for  the  real  than  the 
ideal,  they  were  ever  nearer  earth  than  heaven. 
The  sculptures  by  native  artists,  or  those  by  Greeks 


182  ROMAN  SCULPTURE. 

who  were  reduced  to  the  positions  of  artisans  in 
Rome,  were  but  images  of  their  deified  Caesars 
and  their  Hbertine  wives,  or  of  the  favourites  of  the 
imperial  palace.  Industry,  usurping  the  place  of 
art,  manufactured  statues  of  emperors  and  em- 
presses before  they  were  needed,  and  the  heads 
were  added  according  to  the  requirements  of  dif- 
ferent reigns.  Statues  iconicce  of  this  kind  were 
far  more  numerous  in  Rome  than  in  Greece.  The 
same  kind  of  public  homage  rendered  to  the  family 
of  the  reigning  emperor  in  the  capital  of  the  world, 
was  accorded  in  the  provinces  to  the  proconsuls, 
the  prefects,  and  the  powerful  patrician  families  who 
held  whole  towns  under  their  control.  The  nine 
statues  of  the  Balbus  family,  found  in  the  theatre  of 
Herculaneum,  are  a  proof  of  this.  We  will  content 
ourselves  with  noticing  those  grand  specimens  of 
the  Roman  era  contained  in  different  collections 
of  works  of  art,  which  seem  to  us  to  merit  attention. 
We  begin  in  Italy,  at  Florence. 

The  museum  degV  Uffizi  possesses  a  collection 
called  that  of  the  Roman  emperors,  which  is 
generally  considered  the  most  complete  in  the 
world.  In  it  there  are,  in  fact,  some  very  rare  busts, 
such  as  those  of  Caligula  and  of  Otho.  Including 
men,  women,  and  children,  there  are  sixty-nine  ; 
from    Pompey   (who    would     doubtless    be    rather 


ROMAN  SCULPTURE. 


183 


surprised  at  being  included  amongst  the  emperors) 
and  Caesar,  who   should   properly  begin   the  series, 


Fig.  41. — Agrippina  of  Gernianicus.     (Rome.) 

to  Constantine.   and   even   Quintilius,  who  reigned 
but  twenty    davs.      The    Roman    statues    are   less 


184  ROMAN  SCULPTURE. 

numerous  :  we  can  only  quote  one  Augustus  ha- 
ranguing the  people,  one  Trajan,  and  one  Hadrian. 
At  Rome  we  must  look  for  relics  of  ancient 
national  art  in  the  Capitol,  not  in  the  Vatican. 
The  modern  Romans,  who  have  partly  demolished 
the  Colosseum,  who  have  called  the  Forum  the 
Cattle  Market  (Campo  Vaccina ),  and  planted  arti- 
chokes on  the  Tarpeian  Rock,  have  not  even 
respected  the  ancient  name  of  Capitol,  which  should 
for  ever  have  designated  the  fortress  of  the 
Eternal  City.  They  have  converted  it  into  a 
strange  word,  Campidoglio,  which  signifies  rather 
a  field  of  colza,  a  field  of  oil,  than  the  citadel  of 
rising  Rome,  which  became  the  temple  where 
victorious  Roman  generals  sung  the  Te  Deum,  in 
their  imposing  triumphal  ceremonies.  Ascending  to 
the  new  Capitol  by  the  double  staircase  of  Michael 
Angelo,  we  pass  between  the  two  black  Egyptian 
lions,  the  colossal  statues  of  Castor  and  Pollux, 
called  the  Trophies  of  Marius,  and  reverently 
bowing  before  the  bronze  equestrian  statue  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  on  the  noble  head  of  which  the 
ancient  gilding  is  still  visible,  we  enter  the  Museum. 
In  it  there  is  another  "  room  of  Emperors,"  con- 
taining an  Agrippina,  which  is  a  fair  type  of  the 
Roman  ladies  of  the  age  ;  an  Antinoiis,  the  finest 
of  all  the  statues  of  Hadrian's  devoted  friend ;  and  a 


ROMAN  SCULPTURE. 


185 


Julius  Ccssar,  placed  under  the  portico  of  the  palace. 
The  last-named  is  said  to  be  the  only  authentic 
portrait  of  the  founder  of  the   empire  which  the 


Fig.  42.— Antinoiis.     (Rome.) 

Papal  city  has  preserved.  The  proverb  which 
says  "  a  saint  is  at  home  in  his  shrine,"  would 
apply  to  Caesar  in  the  Capitol,  near  to  a  fine  statue 


186  ROMAN  SCULPTURE. 

of  Triumphant  Rome,  and  seated  between  two 
captive  kings,  not  far  from  the  celebrated  Wolff, 
venerated  by  the  ancient  Romans,  and  immortalised 
b^  Cicero  in  his  Catiline  Orations,  and  in  his  poem 
on  the  Consulate. 

At  Naples  we  find  the  nine  statues  of  the  Balbus 
family  already  alluded  to — the  father,  mother,  son, 
and  three  daughters — found  together  in  the  theatre 
of  Herculaneum,  over  which  town  this  family 
exercised  a  protectorate.  Two  of  them,  the 
equestrian  statues  of  Marcus  Nonius  Balbus  and  of 
his  son,  are  very  fine  and  very  curious.  The  horses 
are  ambling,  that  is  to  say,  they  raise  both  legs  on 
one  side  in  trotting — a  strange  attitude,  not  repre- 
sented, to  my  knowledge,  in  any  other  ancient  or 
modern  equestrian  statue.  The  head  of  the 
younger  Balbus  was  broken  to  pieces  by  a 
French  cannon  ball,  when  it  was  in  the  Palace 
of  the  Portici,  in  1799,  and  a  new  head  was 
made  from  a  cast  of  the  fragments.  The  best 
of  the  other  statues  of  the  same  family  are  those 
of  Balbus  the  father,  and  of  Ciria  his  wife,  who  is 
represented  as  Polymnia.  We  notice  them  for 
several  reasons  :  in  the  first  place,  the  execution 
of  most  of  them  is  good  ;  secondly,  their  discovery 
together  was  curious  ;  and  lastly,  their  arrange- 
ment in  the  theatre  as  tutelary  divinities  of  a  con- 


SOMAN  SCULPTURE.  187 

siderable  town,  proves  the  high  position  occupied 
in  those  days  by  the  patrician  famihes,  who  held 
whole  populations  in  fief. 

The  series  of  Roman  emperors  in  the  Louvre 
is  not  so  complete  as  that  in  the  UJzsi  at  Florence  ; 
but  the  French  collection  is  very  rich,  and  is 
increased  by  statues  of  many  illustrious  personages 
who  did  not  occupy  the  throne.  The  room  con- 
taining their  iconiccs,  or  portraits,  is  in  a  manner 
presided  over  by  two  principal  statues,  which  have 
attained  this  distinction  by  their  superior  beauty 
and  the  imposing  titles  they  bear.  One  of  them 
is  an  Aicgiistiis,  the  other  a  Marcus  Aurelius. 
Julius  Caesar,  whose  name  became  the  title  of  the 
head  of  the  state  as  long  as  the  Roman  Empire 
lasted,  and  afterwards  passed  to  that  of  Germany 
(Kaiser),  ought  to  be  the  chief  of  all  these  masters 
of  the  world  ;  but  the  only  statue  of  Caesar  in  the 
Louvre  is  not  merely  of  doubtful  authenticity,  but 
also  of  no  artistic  value  whatever.  His  immediate 
successor  has  therefore  been  preferred  to  him. 
This  really  fine  statue  of  Augustus  as  an  orator  on 
foot,  was  found  near  to  Velletri  (Velitrae),  the  birth- 
place of  the  conqueror  of  Actium.  He  seems  to  be 
proudly  saying,  "  I  found  Rome  a  city  of  bricks 
and  leave  it  a  city  of  marble  ;"  which  would  not, 
however,    justify   the    crimes    which    marked    his 


188  ROMAN  SCULPTURE. 

accession  to  supreme  power.  Had  not  the  name  of 
the  third  Caesar,  Tiberius,  been  disgraced  by  blood- 
shed and  debauchery,  and  branded  by  Tacitus,  his 
statue  might  have  claimed  first  rank.  It  was  found 
at  Capri  {Caprea),  the  favourite  residence  of  this 
gloomy  tyrant,  who  is  represented  holding  the 
small  sceptre  called  scipio  (staff),  and  it  may  be 
considered  one  of  the  finest  works  of  the  Imperial 
epoch.  It  gives  a  perfect  specimen  of  the  toga, 
the  robe  of  which  the  Romans  were  so  proud,  and 
on  account  oi  which  they  were  called  by  foreigners 
gens  togata ;  the  use  of  which  was  discontinued 
soon  after  the  age  of  Augustus,  in  spite  of  the  edicts 
of  the  emperors. 

Marcus  Aurelius  was  totally  different  from 
Tiberius.  He  justified  Plato's  dictum  :  "  Men  will 
never  be  happy  unless  they  are  governed  by 
philosophers."  He  was  a  royal  philosopher,  he  was 
Socrates  crowned.  The  second  place  of  honour  is 
therefore  rightly  given  to  one  of  his  statues  :  he 
wears  the  military  costume,  t\\Q  paludamentiim  and 
the  cuirass  of  ornamented  leather,  fitting  to  the 
shape,  and  leaving  parts  of  the  body  bare,  as  in  the 
images  of  heroes  and  gods.  This  second  statue 
was  probably  not  raised  until  after  the  death  of 
M.  Aurelius,  when  the  excesses  of  his  successor 
had  increased  the  regret  of  the  world  for  his  loss. 


ROMAN  SCULPTURE.  189 

In  both,  Marcus  Aurelius  wears  the  beard,  which 
was  again  introduced  by  the  family  of  Antoninus, 
after  being  discontinued  for  four  centuries,  from 
the  time  of  the  old  Scipio  (Barbatus),  grandfather 
of  the  first  Africanus. 

Amongst  the  other  imperial  statues  we  will 
notice  :  a  Livia,  the  wife  of  Augustus,  reprebented 
as  Ceres,  whose  tunic  is  as  worthy  of  study  as  the 
toga  of  Tiberius  ;  a  Julia,  daughter  of  Augustus  ; 
and,  like  her  mother-in-law,  dressed  as  Ceres 
(the  left  hand  of  this  infamous  woman,  who  was 
successively  the  wife  of  Marcellus,  Agrippa,  and 
Tiberius,  has  fortunately  been  preserved,  an  excep- 
tional circumstance,  as  the  hands  and  often  the 
arms  of  most  antique  statues  have  been  restored)  ; 
a  Caligula,  or  rather  a  head  of  Caligula,  on  a 
strange  body,  for  the  feet  are  without  the  simple 
leather  boots  (caligae)  which  that  emperor  wore 
from  his  infancy,  in  the  camp  of  his  father,  Ger- 
m aniens,  and  from  which  he  obtained  his  surname 
(this  head  is  valuable  on  account  of  its  rarity,  for 
it  is  well-known  that  the  sword  of  Chaereas  had 
scarcely  freed  the  earth  from  the  furious  madman 
who  wished  that  "  the  Roman  people  had  but 
one  head,  to  be  struck  off  at  a  blow,"  when  that 
people,  who  always  survived  their  masters,  threw 
down  and  destroyed  all  the  images  of  the  tyrant)  ; 


190  ROMAN  SCULPTURE. 

a  Victorious  Nero,  triumphant,  not  over  the  conspi- 
racy of  Piso,  or  that  of  Vindex,  but  in  chariot 
races,  or  in  trials  of  skill  on  the  cithara  (y^iOapa) 
or  on  the  flute.  He  wears  the  heroic  costume, 
that  is,  nudity,  and  on  his  head  rests  the  diadem, 
not  of  a  king,  but  of  a  victorious  athlete.  Who 
would  recognise  in  this  beautiful  and  tender  figure 
of  the  son  of  Agrippina,  the  assassin  of  his  mother, 
his  brother,  his  wife,  of  Seneca,  Lucan,  and  many 
others,  the  incendiary  of  Rome,  and  the  torturer 
of  the  Christians  ?  A  Ti/us,  doubtless  sculptured 
when  he  returned  from  the  sack  of  Jerusalem  before 
he  became  the  peaceful  and  benevolent  prince  who 
was  called  delici<2  generis  huniani.  He  is,  in  fact, 
in  the  attitude  of  a  general  addressing  the  military 
adlocutio  to  his  troops.  His  armour  is  remarkable 
for  the  ocrecB  or  greaves  (the  Kv^yahe'^  of  the  Greeks), 
which  covered  the  leg  from  the  ankle  to  the  knee, 
and  also  for  the  short  heavy  sword  hanging 
from  a  belt.  A  Trajan,  that  great  and  noble 
emperor,  praised  by  Pliny  the  younger  and 
by  Montesquieu  seventeen  centuries  after  his 
reign,  the  conqueror  of  the  Dacai,  and  the  Par- 
thians  ;  he  wears  an  Isis  on  his  breastplate  instead 
of  the  Medusa,  and  his  feet  are  bare,  as  was  his 
custom  in  war.  Lastly,  a  Pupienus  (or  Maximus), 
almost    nude,  as    required    in  the  so-called  heroic 


ROMAN  SCULPTURE.  191 

costume.  This  last  statue  has  an  interest  of  its 
own,  for  we  may  say  that  after  the  death  of 
Pupienus,  who  was  massacred  in  236  by  the 
Praetorian  guard,  the  ancients  did  not  produce  a 
single  work  of  art  truly  worthy  of  the  name. 

Amongst  the  iconic  statues,  not  imperial,  we 
will  name  :  a  Tiridates,  to  whom  Nero  gave  the 
kinsrdom  of  Armenia,  and  whom  he  received  at 
Rome  with  oriental  magnificence.  This  figure  is 
remarkable  for  its  Asiatic  costume,  the  purple 
candys  on  the  white  tunic,  the  pantaloons  called 
atiaxyrides,  and  the  samphera,  or  sword  of  the 
Parthians.  Two  figures  of  Antinous.  We  know 
that  Hadrian's  beautiful  favourite  lost  his  life  in 
saving  his  master  from  drowning  in  the  Nile.  The 
emperor  was  so  inconsolable  for  his  loss  that  he 
made  him  a  god.  "That  extra  god,"  says 
Chateaubriand,  "  whom  he  bequeathed  to  the 
Romans,  worthy  recipients  of  the  gift."  It  was 
just  at  the  time  when  Roman  artists  (or  perhaps 
we  should  say  those  of  Roman  Greece),  in  their 
endeavour  to  infuse  new  life  into  enervated  sculpture, 
sought  for  models  in  ancient  Greece,  Etruria,  and 
even  Egypt.  The  beautiful  youth  of  Bithynia 
became  their  constant  model  ;  they  converted  him 
into  a  new  Apollo,  a  new  type  of  manly  beauty. 
Of  the  two  statues   in   the  Louvre,  one  represents 


102  JiOMAN  SCULPTURE. 

him  as  Hercules,  but  probably  the  head  only  is 
that  of  Antinous,  and  the  body  that  of  Commodus  ; 
the  other,  as  Aristseus,  the  Thessalian  hero,  became 
the  god  of  bees,  of  flocks,  and  of  olives.  In  the 
latter,  which  is  perfectly  well  preserved,  Antinous 
wears  the  costume  of  a  shepherd — the  petasiis,  or 
straw  hat,  the  half  tunic  which  leaves  the  right  arm 
free,  and   the  leather  boots  called  perones. 

Amongst  the  Roman  busts  w^e  will  briefly  name 
in  chronological  order  :  an  Agrippa,  an  excellent 
portrait  of  the  real  conqueror  of  Actium.  A  Donii- 
tiiis  Corbido,  whom  Nero  never  forgave  for  intro- 
ducing' the  honour  and  virtue  of  Rome  into  the 
camp,  thereby  condemning  the  crimes  of  the 
Caesars.  A  Nero,  in  which  this  last  offshoot  of  the 
hateful  race  of  Augustus  is  represented  in  a  sideral 
crown  with  eight  rays.  A  Domitian,  whose  por- 
traits are  as  rare  as  those  of  Caligula,  for  the 
senate  proscribed  even  his  memory.  A  colossal 
Antinous,  as  Osiris,  who  once  had  the  lotus,  the 
sacred  plant  of  Egypt,  on  his  head,  precious  stones 
in  his  eyelids,  and  gilt  bronze  draperies  on  his 
shoulders.  A  Lucius  Vcrus,  a  delicate  and  pleasing 
portrait  of  the  adopted  brother  of  Marcus  Aurelius, 
of  that  effeminate  type  o{  Koimni  petits-inaitres,  who 
powdered  their  hair  and  beard  with  gold  dust. 
A  Septimus  Severus.  wearing  the    ancient  mantle 


ROMAN  SCULPTURE.  193 

of  heavy  stuff,  called  Iczna  by  the  Romans,  and 
')(KaLva  or  yXoevrj  by  the  Greeks.  It  is  mentioned 
by  Homer,  and  by  a  return  to  ancient  fashions, 
it  finally  superseded  the  toga.  A  Caracalla  and 
a  Geta,  the  brothers  who  shared  the  imperial  throne 
for  a  short  time,  until  one  stabbed  the  other.  We 
recognise  Caracalla  not  only  by  his  ferocious  expres- 
sion, but  also  by  the  inclination  of  his  head  tc) 
the  left,  in  imitation  of  Alexander  the  Great.  A. 
Plautilla,  the  wife  of  this  insane  monster.  A 
Matidia,  the  amiable  and  virtuous  niece  of  Trajan. 
A  Faustina,  mother  of  the  first  Antoninus ;  n 
younger  Faustina,  the  lascivious  wife  of  Marcu;> 
Aurelius,  give  instances  of  the  strange  head- 
dresses adopted  by  Roman  ladies  in  lieu  of  the 
simple  braids  of  hair  which  the  Greek  ladies  bound 
so  tastily  with  coloured  ribbons.  The  former  wore 
large  ugly  wigs  called  casque  {galerus  ov galericuium), 
of  every  fantastic,  absurd,  and  inconceivable  shape, 
which  were  usually  made  of  red  hair  imported  from 
Germania.  There  are  some  bust  portraits  of  this 
period,  which,  for  greater  accuracy,  have  the  wig 
of  coloured  stone,  made  to  take  off  and  on,  so  that 
it  could  be  changed  at  will. 

Lastly,  of  the  bas-reliefs  made  at  Rome,  and 
which  were  nearly  all  external  ornaments  of  sarco- 
phagi,   we    will    select    for    notice  :    two    of    those 

o 


194  B  OMAN  SCULP  TUBE. 

solemn  sacrifices  which  were  offered  up  every  five 
years  in  each  quarter  of  the  Eternal  City,  called 
siiovetaurilia,  because  the  magistrate  ordered  the 
victimarii  to  immolate  a  pig  {sus),  a  sheep  {pvis),  and 
a  bull  {tauriis).  The  larger  and  coarser  one  better 
illustrates  all  the  details  of  the  sacrifice,  and  the 
smaller  is  of  more  delicate  execution  ;  one  will 
delight  antiquaries,  the  other  artists.  A  Conclamatio, 
?.  funeral  ceremony,  in  which  the  dead  are  loudly 
called  to  the  sound  of  warlike  instruments,  to 
ascertain  if  life  be  really  extinct.  In  this  bas-reliet 
W't  see  the  straight  trumpet  of  the  Roman  infantry 
(the  tuba),  and  the  curved  trumpet  of  the  cavalry 
(the  litims).  The  Prcstorian  soldiers,  to  whom  an 
adlocutio  is  perhaps  being  addressed.  In  this  grand 
bas-relief  we  may  profitably  study  the  entire 
costume  of  Roman  soldiers  ;  the  long,  oval  shield, 
the  breastplate  fitting  to  the  chest,  the  short,  broad, 
and  heavy  swords,  which  inflicted  such  terrible 
blows  in  a  hand-to-hand  conflict.  The  centurion 
has  a  winged  thunderbolt  on  his  shield,  as  a  token 
that  he  belonged  to  the  famous  twelfth  legion, 
called  legio  fidminans. 

With  regard  to  these  iconic  statues,  both  Greek 
and  Roman,  I  may  perhaps  be  allowed  to  make 
one  closing  remark  applicable  to  the  works  of  our 
own   day.      In   almost  all  these  marble   portraits 


ROMAN  SCULPTURE.  195 

the  pupils  of  the  eyes  are  represented,  sometimes 
even  by  enamels.  Remembering  this,  and  also  that 
Donatello,  Michael  Angelo,  and  the  great  artists 
of  their  age  added  pupils  to  the  eyes  of  their  statues, 
I  would  no  longer  accept  the  excuse  of  modern 
sculptors,  who  omit  this  most  essential  part  of  the 
human  head,  even  in  their  portraits,  urging  the 
interests  of  the  honour  of  art,  and  the  example  of 
the  ancients  !  On  the  contrary,  I  could  wish  them 
to  imitate  the  ancients  in  this  particular,  and  their 
contemporary,  Houdon,  who,  following  Coysevox, 
the  Constou,  Girardon,  and  Pigalle,  made  two 
marble  portraits  of  Voltaire  and  Moliere,  which  are 
admirable  because  he  succeeded  in  giving  expres- 
sion to  the  eyes,  without  which  there  can  be  neither 
life  nor  resemblance. 


196 


BOOK   II. 

MODERN    SCULPTURE. 

IN  the  happy  age  called  the  reign  of  the  Anto- 
nines,  from  Nerva  to  Marcus  Aurelius,  and 
especially  under  Hadrian,  surnamed  reparator 
orbis,  a  great  and  noble  effort  of  renaissance 
was  made  in  every  branch  of  art.  The  nu- 
merous statues  of  Antinous,  together  with  the 
images  of  the  Csesars,  and  the  bas-reliefs  of 
the  Trajan  column,  suffice  to  show  us  that  the 
sculptors  of  Imperial  Rome  were  able,  at  this 
time,  to  contest  the  palm  with  those  of  Republican 
Greece.  Before  the  era  of  the  Antonines,  however, 
art  had  declined,  and  after  it  all  true  culture  was 
entirely  abandoned.  When  Rome  had  enriched 
herself  with  the  spoils  of  the  world,  her  wealth,  as 
we  have  before  observed,  vitiated  her  taste,  and 
she  learned  to  care  more  for  riches  than  for  beauty, 
for  the  precious  metals  than  for  the  ordinary 
materials  of  the  arts.  Pompey  exhibited  his 
portrait   made  in  pearls,  and   Nero  conceived  the 


MODERN  SCULPTURE.  197 

idea  of  gilding  the  bronze  Alexander  of  Lysippus, 
after  having  a  picture  painted  of  himself  one 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  high,  which  Pliny  called 
insanium  in  pictura.  We  have  also  noticed  that  the 
statue  of  the  Emperor  Pupienus,  killed  in  a  revolt 
in  236,  is  the  last  work  of  antiquity — that  is  to  say, 
executed  before  the  triumph  of  Christianity — to  be 
found  in  the  museums  of  Europe. 

When  Constantine  transferred  the  seat  of  the 
new  empire  to  Byzantium,  he  took  with  him  many 
of  the  objects  of  art  which  had  embellished  Rome. 
We  know,  for  instance,  that  he  had  four  hundred 
and  twenty-seven  statues  placed  in  the  temple  of 
St.  Sophia  alone.  The  gods  and  heroes  of 
paganism  were  adapted  to  suit  the  requirements  of 
the  new  religion,  in  the  same  manner  that  basilicas 
and  praetorian  justice  halls  were  transformed  into 
chuches.  But  Constantine  was  not  accompanied 
by  artists  capable  of  producing  statues  of  equal 
merit,  although  he  ordered  images  of  Jesus,  Mary, 
and  the  apostles.  It  was  the  material,  not  the 
execution  of  these  statues,  which  was  valued. 
When  Anastasius  enumerates  the  gifts  presented  to 
the  churches  by  Constantine,  he  mentions  eighteen 
statues  in  solid  silver,  namely :  "  The  Savioui 
seated,  weighing  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  ; 
the    twelve    apostles,    ninety    pounds    each ;    four 


198  MODERN  SCULPTURE. 

angels  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds  weight 
each,  with  eyes  made  of  precious  stones,"  etc.  A 
single  fact  is  enough  to  prove  to  what  an  extent 
the  horrible  taste  for  the  fantastic  and  impossible 
was  carried  at  this  time.  Constantine's  historians 
relate  that  he  also  ordered  a  group  which  combined 
the  portraits  of  his  three  sons,  Constantine,  Con- 
stantius,  and  Constans.  This  group,  in  porphyry, 
had  three  bodies,  six  arms,  and  six  legs,  but  only 
one  head,  which  alternately  gave  the  likeness  of 
each  of  the  three  brothers,  according  to  the  point 
of  view  of  the  spectator.  The  first  Christians  had 
none  of  the  enlightened  taste  and  enthusiasm  for 
the  fine  arts  of  the  polytheists  ;  their  ignorance  and 
prejudice  were  alike  profound.  When  the  Apostle 
Paul  visited  Athens  (about  A.D.  50)  it  still  pos- 
sessed almost  all  its  masterpieces  of  ancient  times  ; 
the  Acropolis  was  still  an  unrivalled  museum;  "but 
all  these  wonders,"  says  M.  E.  Renan,  "  affected  the 
apostle  little  ;  he  saw  the  most  perfect  things  thai 
ever  existed,  that  ever  will  exist,  .  .  .  and  he  was 
unmoved  ;  he  did  not  tremble.  The  prejudices  of 
the  iconoclast  Jew  blinded  him,  and  rendered  him 
insensible  to  the  beauties  of  plastic  art  ;  he  took 
these  incomparable  images  for  idols.  .  .  .  Ah,  fair 
and  chaste  images,  true  gods,  true  goddesses, 
tremble  before  him   who  will    raise    the    hammer 


MODERN  SGULFTUBK  199 

against  you.  The  fatal  word  is  pronounced,  you 
are  idols  ;  the  error  of  this  ill-favoured  Jew  (ce 
laid  petit  Juif)  will  be  your  death  warrant."  At 
Athens  Paul  saw  only  the  altar  to  the  "  Unknown 
God,"  and  of  his  own  authority  he  conferred  it 
upon  the  God  of  the  Jews,  the  only  God,  the 
unnamed  God. 

It  was  indeed  a  death  warrant  pronounced  by  a 
stupid  and  lamentable  hatred.  After  the  pagan 
reaction  of  Julian,  surnamed  the  Apostate,  the 
Christians  in  blind  fury  set  to  work  to  destroy 
all  the  vestiges  of  antiquity,  all  the  objects  of 
art.  "  Burning  to  annihilate  all  that  could  recall 
paganism,  the  Christians,"  says  Vasari,  "  destroyed 
the  marvellous  statues,  sculptures,  paintings,  even 
the  images  of  great  men  which  adorned  the  public 
buildings."  Rome,  Athens,  and  Constantinople 
alone  were  able  to  preserve  a  few  relics  of  antiquity 
Everywhere  else  pagan  works  were  thrown  under 
the  hammer,  the  wheels  of  chariots,  or  into  burning 
furnaces  ;  and  such  was  the  popular  fury,  that  it 
was  necessary,  when  antique  statues  were  to  be 
removed  from  one  capital  to  another,  to  bind  them 
like  criminals,  and  give  out  that  they  were  going  to 
be  exposed  to  the  ridicule  of  the  faithful  in  the 
places  of  execution.  The  writings  of  the  fathers, 
and    the    sermons    of    the    bishops,    excited    such 


20  MODERN  SCULP  TURK 

violent  prejudices,  that  the  first  Christian  emperors 
were  compelled  to  issue  several  edicts  for  the 
destruction  of  idols,  and  this  destruction  was  so 
general  and  complete,  that  when  Honorius  renewed 
the  order  that  they  should  be  broken,  for  the 
fourth  time,  he  added  :  "  If  any  still  remain,  si  qua 
etiani  Jimtc  in  templis  fanisqiie  consistunt!' 

Need  I  say  more  of  the  outrages  of  the  icono- 
clasts ?  need  I  repeat  that  these  sectarians,  in  the 
East  at  least,  succeeded  in  destroying  all  ancient 
sculptures,  and  that,  interpreting  the  sacred  text 
literally,  they  prevented  any  new  cultivation  of  the 
art  ?  When  jewellery  was  preferred  to  everything 
else,  and  when  painting  was  confined  to  enamels, 
gems,  and  chasings  on  gold  or  silver,  sculpture 
produced  nothing  but  miniature  figures  in  one 
metal,  or  in  a  combination  of  different  metals.  The 
only  architectural  art  of  the  Lower  Empire  was  the 
mosaic. 

We  must  therefore  return  to  the  west  for  the 
revival  of  sculpture  and  the  renaissance  of  all  the 
arts. 


901 


CHAPTER  I. 

ITALIAN    SCULPTURE. 

WE  cannot  pause  to  notice  the  crude  pro- 
ductions of  the  first  Christian  age  in  Italy  ; 
they  are  not  even  essays  in  art.  When  beauty  was 
proscribed  as  fatal  and  culpable,  when  the  Fathers 
said,  with  Minucius  Felix,  "impure  spirits  are 
hidden  in  statues,"  what  use  could  art  make  of 
stone  and  marble  ?  In  the  ruins  of  some  of  the 
earliest  churches  we  find  thick  and  clumsy  blocks, 
without  shape  or  expression,  supposed  to  repre- 
sent a  god  or  a  saint,  reminding  us  of  the 
primitive  divinities  of  Greece  before  the  time  of 
Daedalus ;  or  chimerical  monsters  forming  the 
gargoyles  of  the  roofs  of  churches,  disguised  under 
the  name  of  devils  ;  that  is  all.  In  France  and 
Germany  alone  we  find  the  beginnings  of  a  national 
art  at  this  epoch.  In  Italy,  then,  we  will  pass  with 
one  hucfe  stride  over  the  entire  interval  between 
the  Antonines  and  the  Renaissance,  and  begin  our 
work  with  the  Middle  Age. 


202  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

It  was  not  at  Rome,  but  in  ancient  Etruria,  in 
republican  Tuscany,  that  the  revival  of  the  arts 
beean,  and  the  first  result  was  the  reform  of 
sculpture.  The  chief  honour  of  this  reform  belongs 
to  Nicola  of  Pisa,  who  was  the  Giotto  of  statuary. 
He  was  the  first  to  study  the  bas-reliefs  repre- 
senting a  chase  of  Hippolytus  or  of  Meleager,  on 
the  sarcophagus  containing  the  body  of  Beatrice, 
mother  of  the  famous  Countess  Matilda.  He 
mastered  the  style  of  the  ancients,  and  succeeded 
in  imicating  it  in  the  pulpits  of  Siena  and  Pisa, 
a.id  later  in  the  tomb  of  St.  Dominic  at  Bologna. 
He  was  called  Nicola  deW  nrna,  because,  in  123 1, 
he  made  the  beautiful  urn  of  the  founder  of  the 
Inquisition.  What  a  difference  between  the  works 
of  this  first  reformer  of  art  and  the  rough  bas-reliefs 
produced  less  than  half  a  century  earlier  by  a 
certain  Anselm — called,  however,  Dcedaliis  alter — 
to  commemorate  the  retaking  of  Milan  from 
Frederic  Barbarossa  !  After  Nicola  of  Pisa  come, 
successively,  his  son  Giovanni  ;  his  pupil  Arnolfo  ; 
the  brothers  Agostino  and  Agr.olo  of  Sienna  ;  then 
Andrea  of  Pisa  ;  Andrea  Orcagna,  a  universal 
artist,  a  Michael  Angelo  anticipated  ;*  and  lastly, 
Ghiberti,  Donatello,  Delia  Robbia,  and  Sansjvino, 
all  of  Florence. 

*  He  signed  his  sculptures,  Fece  Andi-ea  di  Cione,  pittore;  and 
his  paintings,  Fece  An  Irea  di  Cione,  scultore. 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  203 

Lorenzo  Ghiberti  (1378 — 1455)  is  chiefly  known 
as  tlie  author  of  the  bronze  gates  of  the  Baptistery 
of  Florence.  He  was  not  more  than  twenty  years 
old  when  the  great  work  ordered  by  the  Commune 
was  awarded  to  him,  with  the  approbation  even  of 
his  rival  competitors  Brunelleschi  and  Donatello.* 
In  his  biography  of  Ghiberti,  Vasari  describes  in 
detail  the  sixty  subjects  of  the  bas-reliefs  of  the 
three  gates,  at  which  Ghiberti  worked  as  sculptor, 
chaser,  and  founder,  for  forty  years  of  his  life. 
Although  the  plans  and  groups  of  these  bas-reliefs 
may  with  justice  be  called  too  complicated,  Michael 
Angelo  said  that  the  gates  of  the  Baptistery  were 
worthy  to  be  those  of  Paradise.  "  This  master- 
piece," adds  Vasari,  "  is  perfect  in  every  part,  and 
is  the  finest  in  the  world." 

Donatello,  or  Donato  (1383 — 1466),  who  was  an 
orphan,  educated  by  charity,  succeeded  equally 
well  with  full  relief,  high,  low,  and  very  low  relief, 
and  has  left  his  best  works  to  his  country.  To  the 
carpenter's  guild,  a  marble  St.  Mark;  to  the  Piazza 
del  Palazzo  Vecchio,  a  bronze  Judith;  to  the  Uffizi 
Gallery,  an  Elfin  Dance,  a  David,  conqueror  of 
Goliath,  and  a  St.  John  the  Baptist,  emaciated  by 

*  So  says  Vasari,  but  as  Donatello  was  five  years  younger  than 
Ghiberti,  it  is  probable  that  the  historian  of  painters  and  sculptors 
is  wrong  in  placing  him  amongst  the  CQmpetitors. 


204  ITALIAN  SCULPTUBK. 

fasting.  This  last  work  is  a  marvellous  repre- 
sentation of  the  inspired  forerunner,  of  the  zealous 
locust  eater;  it  is  one  of  the  productions  of  that 
stern  and  conscientious  Donatello,  who,  in  the 
midst  of  the  fetes  given  at  Padua  in  his  honour, 
could  write  down  the  profound  thought:  "If  I 
remained  here,  where  everyone  flatters  me,  I  should 
soon  forget  what  I  know  ;  but  in  my  own  country 
criticism  will  keep  me  vigilant  and  compel  me  to  ad- 
vance." Connoisseurs  compare  this  jfohn  the  Baptist 
to  the  St.  George  of  the  Or-Saii-MicJiele  at  Florence 
alone,  and  the  Fra  Bardiiccio  Cherichini,  in  one  of 
the  niches  of  the  Campanile,  is  the  only  sculpture 
preferred  to  it.  The  last  named,  commonly  called 
lo  Zuccone  {t\\Q  bald-head),  was  Donatello's  favourite 
work,  and  when  he  had  finished  it,  he  exclaimed, 
like  Pygmalion  to  Galatea,  "  Speak !  speak  !" 
(Favella !  favella  !)  and  was  in  the  habit  of  swear- 
ing "  by  the  faith  I  have  in  my  Zuccone !" 

Luca  della  Robbia  (1400 — 1481)  is  supposed  to 
have  invented  the  process  of  enamelling  terra-cottas  ; 
he  preceded  Bernard  Palissy  by  about  a  century, 
but  neither  of  them  laid  claim  to  the  invention  of 
enamel.  The  Greeks,  the  Phoenicians,  even  the 
Egyptians,  were  familiar  with  the  art  of  coating 
terra-cotta  objects  with  glazed  colours.  Della 
Robbia  adapted  it  to  sculpture,  Palissy  to  pottery* 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  205 

and  the  enamellers  on  metal  to  painting'.  We 
have  some  very  valuable  works  by  Delia  Robbia  in 
the  Louvre  ;  a  St.  Sebastian  bound  to  a  trunk  of 
a  tree,  which  seems  to  be  merely  a  trial  of  the 
style,  for  the  onl)-  part  glazed  is  the  white  cloth 
round  the  loins.  T/ie  Vij-giu  adoring  the  Infajit 
Savio7ir,  a  kind  of  bas-relief  in  the  centre  of  a 
round  frame  rather  like  a  large  plate,  is  another 
specimen  of  the  process,  but  incomplete  also,  for 
(with  the  exception  of  the  eyes,  which  are  black) 
the  entire  group,  figures  and  draperies  alike,  is 
glazed  white,  on  a  ground  of  two  colours — blue  for 
the  sky,  and  green  for  the  landscape.  We  see  the 
invention  brought  to  perfection  in  a  Madonna 
holding  the  Infant  Jesus,  a  very  fine  group  in  full 
relief,  the  different  parts  of  which  are  glazed  in  all 
the  colours  which  would  be  employed  in  a  painting, 
with  the  beautiful  varnish  called  invetriato  by  the 
Tuscans. 

Sansovino  (Jacobo  Tatti)  was  born  at  Florence 
in  1479,  ^"<^  Isf^t  a  Bacchns  to  the  Uffizi  Gallery, 
which  will  bear  comparison  with  that  by  Michael 
Angelo  ;  but  he  took  up  his  abode  at  Venice, 
where  he  was  summoned  and  retained  bv  the  dosre. 
Andrea  Giitti,  after  having  first  worked  at  Rome 
under  Julius  II.  Duke  Cosmo,  Duke  Hercules, 
and    Pope  Paul   III.   all  urged   him  to  devote  hi.s 


^V.*/ 


206  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

double  talent,  as  a  sculptor  and  an  architect,  to 
their  respective  '.apitals,  Florence.  Ferrara,  and 
Rome  ;  but  according  to  Vasari,  he  replied  to  all 
their  solicitations  :  "  Having  the  good  fortune  to 
reside  in  a  republic,  it  would  be  madness  to  go  and 
live  under  an  absolute  prince."  The  principal 
works  produced  for  Venice  by  Sansovino  have 
remained  in  the  rich  and  altogether  oriental  church 
of  St.  Mark.  The  most  important  are  the  four 
bronze  statues  of  the  Eva7igclists  in  the  choir,  and 
still  more  admirable  is  the  magnificent  gate  of  the 
sacristy,  behind  the  altar,  also  of  bronze ;  an 
astonishing  work,  at  which  Tatti  is  said  to  have 
laboured  for  thirty  years.  Amongst  the  designs 
on  this  gate,  Sansovino  has  placed  his  own  bust  in 
relief,  between  those  of  his  tuo  friends,  Titian  and 
Aretino,  who,  however,  can  lay  little  claim  to 
sanctity. 

The  equestrian  statue  of  the  famous  cojidottiere 
Bartolommeo  Colleoni  of  Bergamo,  in  the  small 
lateral  piazza  of  the  church  of  San  Giovantii  San 
Paolo  (in  common  parlance,  San  Zanipolo)  at 
Venice,  also  belongs  to  the  fifteenth  century.  It 
was  designed  by  the  Florentine  Andrea  Verrocchio 
— who  was  a  painter,  sculptor,  engraver,  jeweller, 
and  musician — and  was  cast  in  bronze  by  Ales- 
sandro  Leonardo,  who  also  executed  the  graceful 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 


201 


Corinthian  pedestal  which  supports  it.  This  cele- 
brated equestrian  statue,  one  of  the  first  produced 
by  the  Renaissance,  is  eulogised  by  Cicognara  in 
the  following  terms  :  "  The  horse  seems  ready  to 
descend  from  its  pedestal.      Its  movements  are  full 


Fig.  43.— Equestrian  statue  of  Bartolommeo  Colleoni. 

of  energy,  without  being  exaggerated.  The  rider 
is  majestic,  and,  although  clothed  in  iron  mail,  he 
could  not  sit  more  easily  and  gracefully.  Without 
prejudice  to  progress,  we  think  we  may  say  that  no 
more  beautiful  work  has  since  been  produced  in 
this  style." 


208  ITALIAN  SCULP  TUBE. 

This  age  can  ^llso  claim  one  of  the  most  mar- 
vellous works  ever  produced  by  sculpture,  which  is 
placed  in  the  kind  of  semicircular  gallery  which 
runs  round  the  choir  of  the  Djiomo  of  Milan.  It  is 
the  statue  of  a  flayed  man,  called  St.  Bartholomew, 
on  account  of  the  legend.  Imagine  a  human  body, 
as  large  as  life,  entirely  deprived  of  its  skin,  from 
the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  soles  of  the  feet, 
standing  in  the  natural  position  of  a  man  free  from 
pain,  and  wearing  this  skin  flung  over  his  shoulder 
hke  a  mantle.  Imagine,  further,  the  greatest  beauty 
of  form,  the  strictest  truth  of  action,  the  most 
incredible  perfection  of  execution  of  the  muscles, 
the  nerves,  the  bones,  the  sinews,  the  veins  ;  of  all 
the  details  revealed  by  anatomy,  and  you  will  have 
an  idea  of  this  strange  masterpiece,  which,  for 
patient  and  scrupulous  chiselling,  is  probably  un- 
surpassed by  any  ancient  or  modern  work.  The 
very  colour  of  the  marble,  which  has  assumed  a 
reddish  tint,  aids  the  illusion  and  adds  to  the 
admirable  effect.  Beneath  this  strange  statue  is 
the  following  inscription  : 

"  Non  me  Praxiteles,  sed  Marcus  finxit  Agrates." 

The  name  of  the  author  is  all  that  is  known  of  its 
history.  This  Agratus,  Agrates,  or  Agrati,  or 
whatever  he  is  called,  is  alluded  to  in  no  biography, 
in  no  book  on  art ;  his  birth,  his  death,  his  country, 


ITALIAN  SCUJ.PTUnE.  209 

the  time  at  which  he  Hved,  are  aUke  unknown  and 
I  know  of  no  other  production  of  his  chisel.  Most 
probably,  like  a  Benedictine,  he  worked  all  his  life 
dt  this  kind  of  infolio  in  marble,  ano  died  content 
after  having  proudly  compared  himself  to  Praxiteles. 
This  statue  of  the  Flayed  Man  would  be  more 
appropriately  placed  in  a  museum  than  in  a 
church. 

We  have  now  come  to  Michael  Angelo. 

We  know  that  Michael  Angelo  Buonarroti  was 
born  in  1474,  in  the  castle  of  Caprese,  in  the 
Casentino.  He  was  of  a  noble  family,  which 
reckoned  the  famous  Countess  Matilda  among  its 
ancestors.  His  nurse  was  the  wife  of  a  stone- 
cutter, and  the  young  Angelo  showed  germs  of  his 
artistic  genius  even  in  his  cradle.  Speaking  of  him, 
Vasari  says  :  "  While  the  best  artists  were  en- 
deavouring by  the  light  of  Giotto  and  his  followers 
to  give  the  world  examples  of  such  power  as  the 
benignity  of  their  stars  and  the  varied  character  of 
their  fantasies  enabled  them  to  command,  and 
A-hile  desiring  to  imitate  the  perfection  of  nature 
by  the  excellence  of  art,  they  were  struggling  to 
attain  that  high  comprehension  which  men  call 
Intelligence,  and  were  universally  toiling,  but  for 
the  most  part  in  vain,  the  Ruler  of  Heaven  was 
pleased  to  turn  the  eyes   of  his  clemency  tow9rdti 

r 


210  ITALIAN  SCULPTUBE. 

earth,  and  perceiving  the  fruitlessness  of  so  many 
efforts,  the  ardent  studies  pursued  without  any 
result,  ....  deigned  to  send  to  the  world  a  spirit 
endowed  with  universality  of  power*  in  each  art 
and  in  every  profession,  capable  of  showing  by 
himself  alone  what  is  the  perfection  of  art,  ....  in 
painting,  .  .  .  sculpture,  .  .  .  and  architecture.  .  .  . 
The  Almighty  Creator  was  also  pleased  to  accom- 
pany the  above  with  the  comprehension  of  true 
Philosophy,  and  the  adornment  of  graceful  Poesy, 
to  the  end  that  the  world  .  .  .  might  admire  in 
him  an  example  of  blamelessness  in  life  and  every 
action,  as  well  as  of  perfection  in  all  his  works  ; 
insomuch  that  he  might  be  considered  by  us  a 
nature  rather  divine  than  human."  f 

The  mask  of  a  faun's  head,  sculptured  by  Michael 
Angelo  in  marble  as  an  amusement  when  a  child, 
and  which  revealed  his  vocation,  and  led  to  his 
immediate  admission  into  the  academy  of  Lorenzo 
the  Magnificent,  is  carefully  preserved  in  the 
museum  dcgl'  Uffizi  at  Florence.  "Your  faun  is 
old,"  the  Duke  had  said  to  the  young  artist,  "  and 
you  have  left  him  all  his  teeth.  Have  you  not 
noticed  that  old  people  always  have  some  missing .?" 

*  Hi-.'.crJan  of  painters  and  sculptors,   you  are  now  forgetful  of 
Fra  Angelico,  Masaccio,  and  Leonardo  da  Vinci ! 

i   ivirs.  jonac'nan  Forster's  translation.     Vol.  v.  pp.  227  and  228. 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  211 

Michael  Angelo  at  once  broke  one  of  his  faun's 
teeth,  and  scooped  out  the  gum.  Near  this 
youthful  attempt  are  his  great  unfinished  bas- 
relief  of  Mary,  Jesus,  and  St.  John  ;  his  Apollo,  a 
mere  rough-hewn  block  ;  and  his  Brutus,  which  is 
scarcely  even  that.  Michael  Angelo  often  set  to 
work  on  a  block  of  marble  without  any  prepara- 
tion, without  a  sketch  or  a  clay  model.  Sometimes 
he  had  not  enough  marble  for  his  plan,  or  he  cut  it 
too  deeply,  and  then,  unable  to  realise  his  idea,  he 
would  leave  the  block  but  half-hewn.*  But  no 
amateur  or  artist  will  grumble  at  not  seeing  these 
excellent  works  finely  finished  ;  for,  as  in  a  painter's 
sketch,  they  can  here  see  the  sculptor's  first  crude 
thought,  and  the  secret  of  his  mode  of  working  is 

*  Beneath  the  Brutus,  the  following  distich  has  been  engraved  : — 

"  Dum  Bruti  effigiem  sculptor  de  marmore  ducit, 
In  mentem  sceleris  venit,  et  obstupuit." 

(When  the  sculptor  was  carving  the  figure  of  Brutus  in  marble, 
he  remembered  his  crime,  and,  in  his  stupor,  he  paused.) 

The  President  De  Brosses  relates  that  one  day  Lord  Sandwich 
was  looking  at  the  Brutus,  and  shocked  at  the  blame  of  this  great 
republican,  he  at  once  composed  the  following  contradictory 
distich  : — 

"  Brutum  efiecisset  sculptor,  sed  mente  recursat 
Tanta  viri  virtus,  sistit  et  obstupuit." 

(The  sculptor  would  have  finished  Brutus,  but  at  the  thought  of 
the  virtue  of  this  great  man,  he  suddenly  stopped,  discouraged,) 


212 


ITALIAN  SCULP  TURK. 


revealed.  Truly  this  secret  is  worthy  of  study,  and 
it  is  easy  to  see  to  what  perfection  the  artist  could 
attain  when  he  chose  to  work  patiently,  because 
the  Dninkcn  Bacchus,  which  is  probably  his   most 


Fig.  44. — Ivy-crowned  Bacchus.     (Florence.) 

delicate  and  highly  finished  work,  is  near  at  hand. 
Instead  of  the  passion,  the  stern  pride  of  the  Moses 
at  Rome,  the  Bacchus  is  full  of  grace  and  tender- 
ness.     Crowned  with    ivy   and   vine    leaves,  he  is 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  213 

pressing  grapes  into  a  cup,  from  which  a  little 
satyr,  wrapped  in  a  goat's  skin,  is  trying  to  drink 
unobserved.  The  smiling  mouth,  the  sleepy  eyes, 
the  languid  attitude,  the  apparent  difficulty  in 
remaining  standing,  all  admirably  express  the 
efifects  of  drunkenness. 

Florence  may  count  herself  fortunate  in  having 
collected  these  productions  of  her  illustrious  son  ; 
for  we  learn  with  dismay  how  many  of  Michael 
Angelo's  works,  besides  his  celebrated  cartoon  of 
the  Pisan  War,  have  perished  and  disappeared 
from  the  world,  leaving  no  trace  but  their  name. 
In  1492,  a  Colossal  Heracles,  sent  to  Charles  VIII. 
of  France  ;  in  1495,  a  Sleeping  Cupid,  sent  to  the 
Duke  of  Mantua;  in  1501,  a  bronze  David,  ob- 
tained by  a  certain  Florimond  Robertet  of  Blois  ; 
in  1507,  the  bronze  statue  of  Pope  Julius  II.,  broken 
by  the  rebellious  Bolognese  ;  then  a  picture  of 
Leda,  sold  to  Francis  I.  by  the  servant  at  Michael 
Angelo's  studio,  and  burnt  one  hundred  years 
afterwards  by  order  of  a  confessor  of  the  queen  ; 
and  lastly,  the  Marginal  Dante,  in  which  he  had 
sketched  the  greater  part  of  the  figures  and  inci- 
dents of  the  Divina  Commedia.  All  these  form  a 
very  long  and  sad  catalogue — a  gloomy  mortuary 
table. 

The  chief  of  the   works   which    Florence   prides 


214  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

herself  on  possessing  are  not  in  the  Museum  of 
Florence,  but  in  the  sacristy  of  the  old  church  di 
San  Lore?i2o,  originally  built  in  the  fourth  century, 
and  consecrated  by  St.  Ambrosius,  but  recon- 
structed in  1425,  after  Brunelleschi's  designs.  This 
splendid  edifice,  built  by  order  of  Clement  VII.,  is 
called  the  Medici  Chapel. 

It  is  a  strange  fact  that  Michael  Angelo  was 
working  at  this  funereal  chapel  when  he  was  called 
upon  to  defend  republican  Florence  against  the 
Medicis.  Everything  in  it,  even  the  altar,  in  front 
of  which  is  the  Virgin  nursing  the  Ittfant  Jesus,  is 
from  the  hand  of  the  great  master,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  statues  of  Saints  Cosmo  and  Damian, 
by  his  pupils  Montorsoli  and  Raffaello  da  Mon- 
telupo.  On  one  side  is  the  Mansoleiim  of  Giiiliano 
Medici,  in  which  the  statue  of  the  Duke  is  placed 
over  the  figures  of  the  Day  and  of  the  Night ;  on 
the  other,  the  Mausoleum  of  Lorenzo  Medici,  Duke 
of  Urbino,  with  whose  statue  are  the  Early  Dawn 
and  Evening.  This  statue,  one  of  the  master- 
pieces of  modern  sculpture,  is  famous  under  the 
name  of  Pensieroso,  on  account  of  the  melancholy 
and  thoughtful  attitude  in  which  Michael  Angelo 
has  represented  this  precocious  tyrant.  Of  the 
four  allegorical  figures,  equally  gloomy,  morose, 
and  terrible,  the  Evening  and  Night  are  the  most 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  215 

admired.  To  the  latter  Giam-Battista  Strozzi 
addressed  the  following  verses  : — 

La  Notte  die  tu  vedi  in  si  dolci  atti 
Dormire,  fu  da  un  angelo  scolpita 
In  questo  sasso ;  e,  perche  dorme,  ha  vita ; 
Destala,  se  no'l  credi,  e  parleratti.* 

The  Stern  Michael  Angelo  made  his  statue  answer 
in  the  following  bitter  epigram,  a  satire  on  his  own 
age,  and  on  many  another : — 

Grato  m'  e  il  sonno,  e  piu  I'esser  di  sasso, 
Mentre  che  il  danno  e  la  vergogna  dura ; 
Non  veder,  non  sentir,  m'e  gran  ventura. 
Pero  non  mi  destar  :  deh  !  parla  basso.f 

Rome,  where  Michael  Angelo  spent  the  second 
part  of  his  long  life,  and  for  which  he  executed  his 
great  works  in  painting  and  architecture,  has 
also  inherited  some  of  the  fine  productions  of  his 
chisel.  The  cathedral  of  Christendom,  St.  Peter's, 
possesses  the  celebrated  Madonna  della  Pieta, 
sculptured  by  Michael  Angelo  when  eighty-four 
years  old,  after  the  frescoes  of  the  Sistine  Chapel, 
before  the  erection  of  the  cupola.     And  the  church 

*  "Night,  whom  you  see  sleeping  so  calmly,  was  sculptured  in 
this  stone  by  an  angel ;  she  sleeps,  she  lives.  Awake  her  if  you 
doubt,  and  she  will  speak  to  you." 

t  "  It  is  pleasant  to  me  to  sleep,  and  still  more  do  I  prefer  to  be  of 
stone,  in  this  age  of  the  triumph  of  evil  and  shame.  It  is  a  great 
advantage  to  me  to  see  nothing,  to  feel  notliing.  'Iherefore  wake 
me  not.,-  ah  !  speak  low." 


21fi  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

of  Minerva,  which  still  retains  the  name  of  the 
heathen  temple,  contains  the  no  less  celebrated 
statue  called  the  Christ  of  Michael  Angelo  ;  an 
angry  and  avenging  Christ,  the  repetition,  in 
marble,  of  the  thought,  at  least,  embodied  in  that 
of  the  Last  Judgment.  But  we  shall  find  a  still 
more  famous  work  if  we  ascend  a  steep  hill,  called 
in  ancient  Rome  the  Vicus  Sceleratics — because 
Tullia  is  said  there  to  have  crushed  her  father's 
body  under  the  wheels  of  her  chariot — and  enter 
the  old  basilica  of  St.  Peter  in  chains  (San  Pietro 
in  Vincola),  which  has  been  restored  several  times 
since  its  foundation  under  Pope  Leo  the  Great,  but 
has  always  retained  its  primitive  form.  It  contains 
the  mausoleum  of  Julius  II.  and  the  Moses  of 
Michael  Angelo. 

One  word  of  preliminary  explanation. 

There  were  points  of  similarity  in  the  genius  and 
character  of  the  two  men,  pope  and  artist,  which 
tended  both  to  unite  and  separate  them.  And  the 
event  proved  this.  Julius  II.  had  hardly  ascended 
the  pontifical  throne  before  he  conceived  the  idea 
of  perpetuating  his  memory  by  a  magnificent 
mausoleum,  and  having  chosen  Michael  Angelo  to 
execute  it,  he  summoned  him  from  Florence  for 
the  purpose.  Michael  Angelo,  who  was  then 
only    twenty-nine    years    old,    soon    presented    to 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  217 

the  pope  a  plan  of  the  most  colossal  tomb  that 
modern  art  ever  attempted  to  construct.  It 
was  to  be  a  combination  of  architecture  and 
sculpture,  a  decorated  edifice.  Imagine  an  ex- 
tremely massive  quadrangle,  with  niches  in  the 
sides,  containing  Victories,  and  in  the  angles 
terminal  figures  forming  pilasters,  on  which  the 
figures  of  captives  were  to  be  placed  ;  on  this  large 
basement  a  second  narrower  massive  block,  sur- 
rounded with  colossal  statues  of  prophets  and 
sibyls,  was  to  be  added  ;  and  that,  in  its  turn,  sur- 
mounted by  a  pyramidal  mass,  entirely  covered 
with  allegorical  figures  in  bronze.  Such  was  the 
composition  of  which  engraving  has  preserved 
Michael  Angelo's  sketch.  It  would  have  been  as 
large  as  the  mausoleum  of  Augustus,  which  towered 
above  all  the  buildings  of  heathen  Rome.  The 
artist  began  the  work,  but  his  disagreements  with 
Julius  II.  soon  ensued,  and  he  fled  to  Florence,  to 
Bologna,  to  Venice,  and  even  thought  of  going  to 
Constantinople,  where  he  was  invited  by  the  Sultan 
Soliman,  to  erect  a  bridge  between  that  town  and 
the  suburb  of  Pera.  He  did  not  return  to  the 
pope  at  Bologna  until  he  was  sent  as  Florentine 
ambassador  by  the  Gonfalonier  Soderini.  After 
their  reconciliation,  the  pope  ordered  him  to  make 
his  statue  in   bronze,   but   it   was    broken    by  the 


218  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

Bolognese   in  a  revolt,   and    made   into   a  cannon 
called  the  Giulia.*     It  was   long  afterwards,  when 
Paul   III.  commanded  him   to  paint  the  fresco  of 
the    Last    Judgment,    that    an    arrangement    was 
entered    into,    at   the    suggestion    of    the    pontiff, 
between  Michael  Angelo  and  the  heirs  of  Julius  II., 
which  resulted  in  the  reduction  of  the  mausoleum 
to  its   actual   proportions.      Of  the  original    plan, 
nothing   was    finished    but    one    Victory,    now    at 
Florence,  two  Captives,  in  the  Louvre,  and  one  of 
the  prophets,  the  Moses,  an  allegorical  portrait  of 
Julius  II.,  forming  part  of  his  actual  mausoleum, 
and  entirely  executed  by  Michael  Angelo  himself.! 
This  colossal  Moses  is  seated,  holding  the  tables 
of  the  Law  in  his  right  hand,  and  stroking  the  long 
beard,  which  flows  over  his  breast,  with  one  finger. 
On  his  head,  which  is  slightly  turned  to  the   left, 
are  the   two   horns,  ascribed  to   him  by  tradition, 
which,   springing  from  his  thick   hair,  exactly  re- 
semble those   of  a  young  calf  or  goat.      Perhaps 
Michael  Angelo,  like  all  his  contemporary  artists, 
was   in   love  with   ancient    mythology,  and  wished 

*  It  was  when  he  was  making  the  model  of  this  statue,  that 
Michael  Angelo  said  to  the  warrior  pope  :  "  Would  it  not  be  well, 
Holy  Father,  to  put  a  book  in  the  hand?"  "Put  a  sword," 
answered  Julius  ;  "  I  know  nothing  of  letters." 

t  There  were  to  have  been  four  large  figures  :  Active  and  Con- 
templative Life,  St.  F(7u/,  and  the  Moses.     (Vasari.) 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  219 

to  give  Moses  the  symbols  of  the  god  Pan,  of  the 
Great-All,  which  metaphorically  represented  all 
nature,  embracing  all  creatures,  and  was  at  that 
time  confounded  with  the  Egyptian  Osiris.  Or  he 
may  have  intended  to  produce  a  portrait  of  his 
regretted  master,  Savonarola,  whose  face  somewhat 
resembled  a  goat's,  and  whose  peculiar  eyes  were 
called  occhj  caprini  by  his  contemporaries. 

Many  things  have  been  criticised  in  this  figure  ; 
the  head  is  said  to  be  too  small  for  the  immense 
beard,  the  legs  too  long  for  the  feet,  the  body  thick, 
and  the  gaiters  and  flannel  robe  unsuitable  to  each 
other.  Lastly,  with  more  truth,  it  is  urged  that 
some  of  the  details  are  scarcely  worked  out,  hardly 
even  rough-hewn.  The  last  fault,  if  it  be  one,  is 
common  to  nearly  all  Michael  Angelo's  works,  for 
he  cared  no  more  for  small  effects  in  chiselling  a 
statue  than  he  did  in  painting  a  picture,  or  in 
sketching  the  plan  of  a  building.  It  should  also  be 
remembered  that  the  Moses  is  a  colossal  figure, 
intended  to  be  seen  at  a  certain  height.  But 
however  much  foundation  there  may  be  for  these 
criticisms,  this  faulty  Moses  is  none  the  less  its 
author's  masterpiece  of  sculpture,  and  probably 
also  of  all  modern  statuary.  To  find  its  equal  it 
would  be  necessary  to  go  back  to  antiquity,  for  I 
see    nothing    like    it    in    the  works    of    Donatello, 


220  ITALIAN  SCULP  TURK. 

Sansovino,  Puget,  or  Canova.      I  shall  not,  there- 
fore, pause  to  defend  it  from  the  charge  of  faults  of 
detail,  but  remark,  in  my  turn,  that  the  anatomical 
drawing  of  the  feet,  hands,  arms,  and  face,  may  be 
compared  to  that  of  the   most  perfect  specimens 
left    by    the    ancients.       In    speaking    of    Michael 
Angelo,  I  prefer  to  follow  his  mode  of  procedure  in 
the  arts  ;  and  to   say,  that  taken   as  a  whole,  his 
Moses  is  the  grandest  and  most  admirable  emblem 
of  strength,  severity,   and    power,   ever  produced  ; 
and  that  never  have  those  various  qualities  which 
give  authority,  and  constitute  the  superiority  of  one 
man  over  his  fellows,  been  so  fully  expressed.     His 
irresistible  glance  seems  to  be  overawing  a  muti- 
nous people,  and  reducing  them  to  submission   at 
his  feet.     He  is  indeed  the   stern   legislator  of  the 
Hebrews,  armed  with  the  terrible  Law.     I  do  not 
believe  that,  celebrated  as  they  were  in  antiquity, 
the  Jupiter  Olympius,  the   Juno  of  Samos,  or  the 
Minervas    of    Athens,  were    more    majestic,   more 
fearful,  or  better  calculated  to  inspire  the  populace 
with  terror  and  religious  awe.     Vasari  says  of  this 
statue :  "  So  well,   at  a  word,  has   the  artist   ren- 
dered the  divinity  which   the  Almighty   had    im- 
parted to  the  most  holy  countenance  of  that  great 
lawgiver.     At  a  word,  the  sculptor  has  completed 
his  work   in  such  a  sort  that  Moses  may  be  truly 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  221 

affirmed  more  than  ever  to  merit  his  name  of  the 
friend  of  God  ;  and  to  Michael  Angclo  the  care  of 
preparing  his  resurrection  was  intrusted.  Nay,  the 
Jews  are  to  be  seen  every  Saturday,  or  on  their 
Sunday,  hurrying  ...  to  visit  and  worship  this 
figure,  not  as  a  work  of  the  human  hand,  but  as 
something  divine."  (Mrs.  Forster's  translation, 
p.  249.) 

We  have  already  said  that  the  Louvre  may 
pride  itself  on  possessing  a  work  by  this  Titan  of 
art.  We  allude  to  the  two  Captives  which  were  to 
have  been  placed  in  the  angles  of  the  monument  to 
Julius  II.  One,  perhaps  the  more  beautiful,  is 
incomplete,  like  the  monument  itself.  The  head 
is  scarcely  chiselled,  the  neck  hardly  rough-hewn. 
Fortunately  no  sacrilegious  hand  has  dared  to  finish 
the  work  of  Michael  Angelo.  And  who  could 
complain  at  seeing  his  mode  of  working  revealed 
to  them,  as  in  the  B^'utus  of  the  Uffizi*  Are  not 
the  features  of  the  one  Captive,  barely  indicated  as 
they  are,  as  suggestive,  indeed  as  full  of  admirable 
expression,  as  those  of  its  highly  finished  com- 
panion .''       Is    not    every    limb    of    both    full    of 

*  We  can  see,  for  instance,  how  in  the  first  rough  hewing  of  the 
marble  Michael  Angelo  tried  to  imitate  the  sinuous  lines,  the 
curves,  the  serpentine  fortns,  as  he  himself  called  them,  of  which  the 
human  figure  is  always  made  up  in  every  attitude  and  every  variety 
of  action. 


222  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

suffering  and  humiliation  ;  in  the  one  borne  with 
resignation,  in  the  other  with  gloomy  im- 
patience ?  Rightly  to  admire  these  grand  figures, 
we  have  only  to  remember  what  they  are,  or 
rather  what  they  were  to  have  been  ;  and  before 
them  we  repeat  the  exclamation  of  the  sculptor 
Falconnet :  "  I  have  seen  Michael  Angelo  ;  he  is 
appalling !" 

On  the  high  altar  of  Notre  Dame  at  Bruges, 
a  celebrated  Madonna  is  shown,  said  to  be  by 
Michael  Angelo.  In  the  north,  where  statuary  is 
always  poor,  its  chief  material,  marble,  being 
wanting,  this  Madoima  was  sure  to  excite  extra- 
ordinary admiration.  It  is  indeed  a  very  fine 
group,  in  a  noble,  lofty,  and  solemn  style.  The 
Virgin  is  seated,  and,  like  a  Byzantine  Madonna, 
she  is  clothed  to  the  throat,  and  her  head  is  covered 
with  a  veil,  but  all  the  draperies  are  light  and 
graceful.  The  Holy  Child  stands  between  her 
knees,  as  in  K3.pha.eV s  Mado/ina  with  the  Goldfinch  ; 
he  is  naked,  his  attitude  easy,  and  the  modelling 
of  his  flesh  perfect.  On  the  whole,  I  admit  that 
the  too  often  misapplied  title  of  masterpiece  may 
rightly  be  bestowed  on  this  beautiful  group.  But 
is  it  by  Michael  Angelo  }  Doubt  is  justifiable  on 
this  question,  and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  doubt. 
When  a  fine  piece  of  Italian  sculpture  arrives  in 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  223 

Flanders,  and  is  enthusiastically  admired,  it  is 
naturally  at  once  ascribed  to  the  greatest  Italian 
sculptor.  But  where  is  the  historic  proof?  Some 
tale,  I  know  not  what,  is  told  of  its  capture,  when 
on  its  way  from  one  town  of  Italy  to  another,  by 
an  Algerian  corsair,  which  in  its  turn  was  taken  by 
a  Dutch  vessel.  But  this  is  only  one  of  those 
vague  traditions  which  may  sanction  a  fable,  but 
do  not  establish  a  truth.  It  undoubtedly  requires 
more  insight  to  recognise  a  sculptor's  than  a 
painter's  touch,  and  to  ascribe  a  piece  of  statuary 
to  the  right  author  with  absolute  certainty  is  very 
difficult.  But  for  this  reason  we  are  more  at 
liberty  to  deny,  or  at  least  to  doubt,  that  such  a 
work  is  by  such  a  sculptor.  In  this  case,  most 
decidedly,  the  chiselling  is  softer  and  more  delicate, 
that  is  to  say,  less  energetic  and  powerful,  than 
Michael  Angelo's.  If,  however,  this  group  were  by 
the  great  Italian  master,  it  would  belong  to  his 
youth,  to  the  time  of  the  Bacchus  of  Florence, 
not  to  that  of  the  Moses  of  Rome.  But  one 
material  and  palpable  fact  ought,  I  think,  to  settle 
the  question.  It  is  that  neither  the  Virgin  nor  the 
child  have  any  pupils  in  their  eyes  ;  and  I  know 
that  amongst  all  the  great  Florentine's  works  there 
is  not  one  statue  or  bust  without  pupils.  This 
seems  to  me  decisive.      The-  style    of   the  group, 


2L'4  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

although  noble  and  dignified,  is  not  very  severe ; 
and  this,  together  with  the  somewhat  fastidious 
deHcacy  of  many  details,  leads  me  to  suppose_that 
it  does  not  belong  to  the  epoch  closed  by  Michael 
Angelo,  but  might  be  ascribed,  for  instance,  to 
Donatello,  Delia  Robbia,  or  John  of  Bologna.  It 
resembles  still  more  the  works  of  Sansovino,  who 
was  renowned  for  the  lightness  of  his  draperies, 
and  the  refinement  of  the  heads  of  his  women  and 
children.  But  might  not  this  Madonna  of  Bruges 
be  the  work  of  the  Florentine  Torregiano,  or 
Torregiani,  who  left  his  own  land  out  of  jealousy  of 
the  success  of  Michael  Angelo,  and  after  wandering 
through  France,  Flanders,  and  England,  finally 
died  miserably  in  Spain  }  Torregiano  was  called 
Michael  Angelo's  rival,  and  in  a  boyish  quarrel 
he  broke  the  future  master's  nose  by  a  blow 
with  his  fist.  This  would  be  enough  to  lead 
tradition  to  ascribe  his  \vork  to  Michael  Angelo 
himself. 

At  the  same  time  that  the  great  Florentine  was 
living  at  Rome,  and  Sansovino  at  Venice,  another 
native  of  Florence  was  rising  into  notice ;  and 
having  left  Italy,  established  himself  at  Fontaine- 
bleau,  where  he  rendered  the  same  services  to 
French  sculpture  as  Andrea  del  Sarto,  Rosso,  and 
Primaticcio  had   to   painting.     We   allude  to  Ben- 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  225 

venuto  Cellini  (1500 — 1570),  who  was  a  jeweller, 
an  engraver  on  stone  and  metal,  a  founder,  a 
chaser,  and  a  sculptor.  He  struck  the  beautiful 
coins  used  by  Clement  VII.  at  Rome,  and  Alex- 
ander Medici  at  Florence,  and  wrote  treatises  on 
sculpture,  jewellery,  and  the  casting  of  metals, 
besides  the  curious  Memoirs,  in  which  he  relates 
his  strange  adventurous  life.  He  left  a  group  of 
Perseus  cutting  off  the  Medusa's  head,  at  Florence, 
in  front  of  the  fine  portico  of  Orcagna  called  the 
Loggie  de'  Lanzi ;  and  in  France  he  sculptured  the 
Nymph  of  Fontaineblcan,  now  in  the  Louvre.  It  is 
scarcely  a  group  or  a  statue,  but  rather  a  high 
relief  cast  in  bronze.  A  nude  female  of  colossal 
size,  with  limbs  of  inordinate  length,  supports 
herself  on  the  left  arm  in  a  semi-recumbent  posi- 
tion, whilst  the  right  is  round  the  neck  of  a  stag, 
the  head  of  which,  with  its  huge  horns,  projects 
beyond  the  rest  of  the  group.  Cellini  was  soon 
driven  from  the  court  of  Francis  I.  by  the  scorn  of 
the  Duchesse  D'Etampes,  and  this  nymph  of  the 
woods,  this  huntress  Diana,  is  the  most  important 
of  the  works  produced  by  him  during  his  sojourn 
there.  It  was  placed  in  an  arched  frame,  and 
intended  to  decorate  the  tympanum  of  the  Porte 
Doree  at  Fontainebleau ;  but  Diana  of  Poitiers 
persuaded  Henry  II.  to  give  it  to  her,  and   placed 

Q 


226  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

it  over  the  entrance  of  her  chateau  of  Anet.  Near 
this  Nymph  are  two  splendid  chased  vases  in 
Florentine  bronze,  also  attributed  to  Benvenuto 
Cellini,  but  there  is  no  proof  that  he  is  their 
author :  the  material,  style,  and  beauty  of  work- 
manship alone  warrant  the  idea. 

Ammanato,  a  worthy  pupil  of  Sansovino,  con- 
structed the  inner  court  of  the  Pitti  Palace,  and 
sculptured  the  beautiful  fountain,  which  bears  his 
name,  for  the  public  garden — the  colossal  Neptune, 
drawn  by  four  sea-horses.  After  him,  Italian 
sculpture  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  Neapolitan, 
Lorenzo  Bernini ;  and  at  the  same  time  Italian 
painting,  finally  deserting  the  Bolognese,  was  most 
successfully  practised  by  another  native  of  Naples, 
Luca  Giordano.  The  two  great  sisters,  as  Vasari 
calls  them,  simultaneously  declined. 

The  Cavaliere  Bernini  (1598 — 1680),  who  was 
ostentatiously  called  the  second  Michael  Angela 
was  the  arbiter  of  the  taste  of  Europe,  and  the 
judge  of  all  artistic  matters  in  Italy  for  half  a 
century,  and  under  nine  different  popes.  Louis 
XIV.  summoned  him  to  Paris  in  1665,  to  advise 
him  about  the  restoration  of  the  Louvre  ;  and  we 
think  that  had  Bernini  lived  when  art  was  at  its 
zenith,  he  might  have  been  a  great  man ;  but 
comnig  as  he  did,  when  the  decadence  had  set  in, 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  227 

he  yielded  to  its  influence,  and  instead  of  checking, 
he  encouraged  its  progress.  As  an  architect,  he 
erected  the  pretentious  circular  piazza  forming  the 
approach  to  the  cupola  of  St.  Peter's,  by  the  great 
Florentine.  As  a  sculptor  he  executed  the  pulpit 
and  canopy  of  the  sovereign  pontiff  and  the  tomb 
of  Urban  VIII.,  with  its  two  huge  masculine- 
looking  attendant  figures,  from  whose  breasts  the 
milk  of  Justice  and  Charity  flows  upon  the  body 
of  the  dead  pope.  The  last  named  is  probably 
Bernini's  best  work.  His  style  of  sculpture 
somewhat  resembled  Rubens's  painting,  minus  the 
colour. 

Algardi  was  as  full  of  affectation  as  Bernini  of 
pretension,  and  he  flourished  about  the  same  time, 
1583  to  1654.  As  a  sculptor  he  scarcely  equalled 
Albano.  Encouraged  by  these  two  chiefs  of  the 
decadence,  and  also  by  Luca  Fa  presto,  depraved 
taste  now  sanctioned  even  frivolous  productions. 
At  Naples  visitors  are  always  taken  to  the  San 
Severo  chapel  and  expected  to  admire  the  sculp- 
tures which  it  contains.  There  we  see  r^  recumbent 
Christ  under  a  sheet,  through  which  the  outline  of 
the  nose,  shoulders,  and  knees  may  be  discerned  ;  the 
statue  of  a  woman,  called  Modesty,  because  she  is 
completely  covered  with  a  kind  of  damp,  clinging 
garment  ;  and  lastly,  the  allego.ical  personification 


228  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

of  a  human  soul  extricating  itself  from  vice — that 
is  to  say,  a  sort  of  human  fish  trying  to  break 
the  meshes  of  a  marble  net,  in  which,  of  course,  the 
devil  had  entangled  it.  There  may  be  a  certain 
ease  of  workmanship  in  these  strange  productions 
of  Antonio  Corradini,  even  as  there  is  dexterity 
of  touch  in  the  works  of  Van  Loo  and  Boucher  ; 
but  for  all  that  they  evidently  belong  to  a  school 
still  more  inferior  than  that  of  Bernini — a  degene- 
ration from  his,  in  fact ;  and  their  influence  is  so 
fatal  to  the  cause  of  art,  t  at  we  only  allude  to 
them  for  the  sake  of  warning  every  one  against 
even  looking  at  them,  and  urging  sensible  men 
never  to  sanction  the  production  of  such  monstrous 
anomalies,  either  by  visiting  or  praising  them.  In 
them  we  have  execution  without  style  or  taste, 
manual  power  without  soul  or  spirit. 

To  find  Italian  sculpture  once  more  rising  to  the 
position  of  a  great  art,  and  realising  the  ideal,  we 
nmst  pass  on  to  Antonio  Canova  (1747 — 1822), 
who,  like  Giotto  and  Mantegna,  rose  from  the 
position  of  a  herdsman  to  that  of  an  artist.  In  the 
room  appropriated  to  bas-reliefs  in  the  Academy 
of  the  Fine  Arts  at  Venice  is  preserved  the  precious 
porphyry  urn  containing  Canova's  right  hand  ;  his 
heart  is  in  the  church  of  the  Frari,  and  the  rest 
of  his  body  in  the  village  of  Possagno.     Beneath 


ITALIAN  SCULP  TUBE.  229 

this  urn  his  chisel  is  suspended,  and  the  following 
inscription  engraved  : — 

Quod  mutui  amoris  monumentum 
Idem  glorias  incitamentum  sit.* 

Canova  only  left  one  group,  Dcedalus  and  Icarus, 
to  Venice,  although  he  died  there.  It  was  one  of 
his  earliest  productions,  yet  it  fully  revealed  his 
powers.  It  formed  part  of  the  Barbarigo  collection, 
now  dispersed.  We  must  look  for  Canova's  works 
at  Rome.  In  the  church  of  the  Holy  Apostles 
(SS.  Apostoli)  we  find  the  mausoleum  of  Clement 
XIV.  ;  in  the  basilica  of  St.  Peter's,  the  tomb  of 
Pius  VI.,  that  of  the  Stuarts,  and  the  still  more 
celebrated  vwnuumito  di  Rezzonico  to  Clement 
XIII.  ;  and  lastly,  in  the  Vatican,  such  of  his 
sculptures  as  have  received  the  perilous  honour 
of  beine  mixed  v.'ith  the  most  valuable  relics 
of  ancient  Greece.  These  are,  the  Wrestlers, 
Damoxcnus  and  Crcugas,\  which  are  very  inferior 
to  those  of  Florence— they  are  appropriately  called 
the  boxers,  for  they  express  nothing  but  clumsy 
brute  force  —  and  the  statue  of  Perseus,  which 
Canova  did  not  hesitate  to  undertake,  although  he 
was  familiar  with  that  by  Benvenuto  Cellini,  and 

*  May  this  monument,  the  memorial  of  a  mutual  affection,  be  also 
an  incentive  to  g'oiy. 

t  See   the   histoiy  of  these   pugilists   in    Fausanias.     (Book  xiii 

chap.  40.) 


230  ITALIAN  bVULVTUBE. 

which  received  the  signal  honour  of  filling  the  place 
of  the  Apollo  Belvedere  when  the  latter  was  carried 
off  to  Paris  by  the  French.     The  beautiful  title  of 


Fig.  46. — The  Perseus  of  Canova.     (Rome.) 
Consolatrice  was  also  given  to  it.     The  face  of  the 
Perseus  resembles  that  of  the  Apollo,  and  this  is  a 
fault   rather   than   a  merit.      It  is  very   delicately 
finished,  and  slightly  affected.     The  Medusas  head 


ITALIAN  SCULVTUllK.  231 

held  in  the  hero's  hand  will  not  terrify  any  one,  for 
it  is  that  of  a  young  and  beautiful  woman,  with  the 
serpents  arranged  in  such  a  manner  as  to  resemble 
the  symmetrical  locks  of  the  Assyrians.  Faithful 
to  the  Grecian  type,  and  taking  the  antique  Medusa 
of  Munich  for  his  model,  Canova  succeeded  in  com- 
bining moral  deformity  with  physical  beauty,  and 
has  given  his  Gorgon  that  expression  of  freezing 
disdain  which  pierces  the  soul,  and  may  be  fatal. 

Canova  shared  the  fate  of  his  country  and  be- 
came a  subject  of  Austria,  and  his  chief  works  are 
to  be  found,  not  at  Rome,  but  at  Vienna.  One  of 
them,  the  mausoleum  of  Maria  Christina  of  Austria, 
a  daughter  of  Maria  Theresa,  and  the  wife  of  Duke 
Albert  of  Saxe-Teschen,  is  in  the  church  of  the 
Augustines,  where  are  also  to  be  seen  the  entire 
skeletons  of  Saints  Clement  and  Victoria,  in  bro- 
cade garments,  under  glass  cases  —  an  edifying 
spectacle,  no  doubt,  but  not  so  attractive  as  a  fine 
statue  !  A  funeral  procession  advances  along  an 
open  pyramid,  the  shape  of  the  great  sepulchres  of 
antiquity.  Veiled  Virtue  carries  an  urn  containing 
the  ashes  of  the  princess,  preceded  by  weeping 
maidens  typifying  Innocence,  and  followed  by 
Benevolence  supporting  an  okl  man.  On  the 
threshold  a  weeping  spirit,  the  symbol  of  the 
husband,  left  behind  upon  the  earth,  leans  against 


2.'^2 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURK. 


a  Hon.  Although  this  ostentatious  tomb  is  some- 
what theatrical,  and  may  almost  be  called  heathen, 
it  is  undoubtedly  a  fine  work,  and  the  style  and 
effect  are  alike  grand.  All  these  figures  combine 
and  harmonise  well,  they  are  admirably  grouped, 


"i;,'i"fi- 


Fiy-  47 


Grouii  from  the  Mausoleum  of  IMaiia  Christina,  by 


C'anova.     (Vienna.) 

and  many  of  them— one  of  the  young  girls,  and  the 
old  man  supported  by  Benevolence,  for  instance- 
would  be  excellent  statues  if  seen  alone.  On  the 
whole,  we  think  that  the  mausoleum  of  Maria 
Christina,  which  is  the  most  important  of  Canova's 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  233 

monuments,  is  as  likely  to  preserve  his  fame  to  future 
generations  as  any  of  the  tombs  whicli  he  erected 
under  the  vast  dome  of  the  Catholic  metropolis. 

Another  of  Canova's  works,  the  colossal  group  of 
Theseus  conqueror  of  the  Minotaur,  is  still  more 
celebrated  in  the  art  world.  For  the  worthy  re- 
ception of  this  Italian  guest  a  temple  was  con- 
structed in  the  Volksgarten  (People's  Garden)  of 
Vienna,  which  was  an  exact  copy,  in  size  and  shape, 
of  the  temple  of  Theseus  at  Athens  ;  the  material 
alone  is  different ;  plaster  has  taken  the  place  of  the 
white  marble  of  Pentelicus.  Canova's  group,  like 
the  old  statue  of  the  demi-god,  is  worshipped  in 
this  temple,  and  its  priests  are  a  kind  of  policemen, 
who  open  the  doors  at  promenade  hours.  Except 
for  a  Grecian  helmet,  Theseus  is  nude,  and  is 
raising  his  club,  the  weapon  of  the  companion  of 
Alcides,  to  despatch  the  monster  whom  he  has  just 
thrown  down  at  his  feet.  This  attitude  is  perhaps 
theatrical,  the  ordinary  fault  of  Canova's  large 
compositions,  but  the  statue  as  a  whole  is  a 
splendid  study  ;  every  limb,  every  muscle  perfectly 
expresses  strength  in  action.  For  my  part,  how- 
ever, I  consider  the  finest  part  of  the  group  to  be 
the  Minotaur — if  such  it  may  still  be  called,  now 
that  sculpture,  sacrificing  historic  truth  to  beauty 
of  form,  has  converted  the  son  of  Pasiphae,  the 


234 


ITALIAN  SCULP  TUBE. 


man-bull,  into  a  man-horse,  a  centaur.*     His  action 
under  the  weight  of  Theseus,  who  presses  his  throat 


Fig.  48. — Theseus  vanquishing  the  Minotaur,  by  Canova. 
(Vienna.) 

with  the  left  arm  and  his  stomach  with  one  knee, 
is  most  happily  rendered,  and  full  of  energy.     The 

*  It  is  possible,  tliat  in  spite  of  tiie  name  given  to  this  famous 
group,  the  sculptor  intended  to  represent  not  Theseus  slaying  the 
Minotaur,  but  Theseus  killing  the  Centaur  Euiytion,  who  carried 
off  the  beautiful  Hippodamia  at  the  wedding  of  Pirithoiis.  It  is  the 
subject  of  one  of  the  most  valuable  monochrome  drawings  on  marble 
found  at  Pompeii,  and  collected  in  the  museum  of  Naples. 


ITALIAN  SCULPTl'HK  235 

head,  flung  back  to  the  crupper,  which  is  convul- 
sively struggling  to  raise  tlie  double  body,  the 
heaving  chest,  the  legs  bent  under  him  and  appa- 
rentl)'  broken,  the  exhausted  arms,  which  only 
retain  sufficient  strength  to  seek  a  support  upon 
the  ground,  all  together  form  a  splendid  whole, 
which  reminds  us  of  the  famous  antique  group  of 
the  Wrestlers,  in  which  also  the  conqueror  is  ex- 
celled by  the  vanquished.  In  this  part  of  the  huge 
group,  even  the  marble  is  more  beautilully  veined 
and  of  a  closer  grain.  Suffering  is  as  wonderfully 
rendered  in  the  Minotaur  as  force  in  Theseus  ;  and 
if  we  must  needs  be  critical,  we  may  notice  a 
decided  resemblance  between  his  head  and  that  of 
the  Laocoon.  The  features  of  Theseus,  too,  which 
express  anger  and  scorn,  are  somewhat  like  those 
of  the  Pythian  Apollo.  The  artist  may  have  in- 
tended to  render  a  sort  of  homage  to  the  two  great 
masterpieces  of  Grecian  art  in  the  Vatican,  which 
had  served  him  as  models.  I  noticed  one  slight 
fact  which  proves  how  thoroughly  the  young  Pos- 
sagno  peasant  studied  the  smallest  archaeological 
details,  and  how  well  he  knew  how  to  turn  his  im- 
provised education  to  account.  He  has  given  his 
hero  the  crushed  ears  of  the  pancratiast  athletes. 
It  was  this  Theseus,  in  fact,  who,  when  king  of 
Athens,  founded  the  lesser  Panathenaea,   in  which 


236  ITALIAN  SCULPTURE. 

gymnastic  games  were  celebrated  ;  and,  like  many 
other  illustrious  Grecians,  even  after  the  heroic  age, 
Pythagoras,  Chrysippus,  and  even  the  divine  Plato, 
for  instance,  he  is  supposed  to  have  taken  part  in 
them  personally. 

Canova  also  erected  another  tomb  at  Florence, 
that  of  Alfieri,  and  was  afterwards  invited  to  Paris 
by  Napoleon,  and  made  a  member  of  the  Institute. 
There  he  left  his  charming  statue  of  Repentant 
Magdalene,  which  has  passed  through  so  many 
different  collections  ;  and  one  other  work,  the  group 
of  Zephjrus  carrying  off  the  sleeping  Psyche  to  the 
mysterious  abode  of  Cupid,  which  justly  enjoys  the 
exceptional  honour  of  being  the  only  piece  of 
statuary  by  a  foreigner  in  the  French  museum  of 
sculpture  in  the  Louvre.  This  charming,  light, 
and  airy  group,  reproduces  all  the  charms  of  the 
tale  of  Apuleius  as  translated  by  La  Fontaine.  It 
worthily  represents  the  herdsman  transformed  into 
a  great  artist ;  so  great,  indeed,  that  no  modern,  not 
even  Michael  Angelo  himself,  succeeded  better  in 
imitating  the  beauty  of  form,  the  charm  of  expres- 
sion, and  the  delicate  workmanship  of  the  produc- 
tions of  antiquity. 

In  1S15  he  undertook  to  restore  to  Italy  those 
objects  of  art  which  were  seized  by  France  in  the 
time  of  the   exactions   of  the  Empire,   that    they 


ITALIAN  SCULPTURE.  237 

might  adorn  the  capital  of  the  continent.  For 
this  he  has  been  condemned :  but  was  Canova 
French  or  Itahan  ?  Were  not  the  treasures  which 
he  restored  to  his  country  by  force  first  taken  from 
it  by  force  ?  And  if  we  blamed  as  mucli  as  we 
regret  his  mission,  how  could  that  affect  the  merit 
of  his  works  ?  Let  us  be  as  just  to  talent  as  to 
valour,  even  in  our  enemies. 

Canova's  was  the  reigning  school  of  Italy  until 
our  own  age,  and  is  so  still.  It  produced  the  Dane 
Thorwaldsen,  of  whom  we  shall  presently  speak, 
and  the  Florentine  Bartolini,  who  a  few  years  ago 
might  have  been  called  the  only  artist  of  Italy. 
To  the  lessons,  example,  and  traditions  of  this 
school  also,  we  owe  all  those  rising  sculptors  who 
came  into  notice  at  the  Universal  Exhibition, 
Messrs.  Dupre,  Vela,  Argenti,  Luccardi,  Strazzi, 
etc.,  whose  works,  although  somewhat  feeble  and 
affected,  yet  possess  true  grace.  The  delicacy  of 
the  execution  is  really  marvellous ;  the  marble 
is  made  to  accommodate  itself  to  all  the  vagaries 
of  fashion  ;  it  is  bent,  plaited,  and  covered  with 
laces  and  embroidery,  like  a  textile  fabric.  Italy 
produces  many  successful  imitators  of  Canova,  but, 
alas,  not  one  disciple  of  Michael  Angelo.  Let  her 
take  heed  :  beauty  there  is,  but  no  grandeur  in 
such  an  imitation. 


238 


CHAPTER  III. 

SPANISH    SCULPTURE. 

OCULPTURE  did  not  occupy  an  equal  or  even 
^  a  proportionate  position  to  painting  in  Spain. 
We  find  scarcely  any  traces  of  the  culture  of  this 
art,  at  least  of  its  highest  branch,  statuary  ;  and  no 
marble  or  bronze  work  equal  to  the  canvasses  of 
Velasquez,  Murillo,  or  Ribera,  has  ever  been  pro- 
duced. The  Arabs  could  teach  the  Spaniards 
nothing  but  architecture,  as  the  Koran  had  pro- 
nounced an  anathema  on  all  the  other  arts  of  de- 
sign, and  even  on  music.  It  is  true  that  the  Arabs 
of  Spain  submitted  to  these  restrictions  less  scru- 
pulously than  their  Syrian  brethren  ;  but  the  lions 
of  the  Alhambra,  although  merely  fanciful  creatures, 
chimeras,  monsters,  etc.,  in  reality  constituted  an 
heretical  offence.  Neither  the  Mussulmans  of  Africa 
nor  of  Andalusia  were  ever  allowed  to  make  any 
but  clumsy  imitations  of  certain  noxious  animals, 
such  as  rats,  scorpions,  and  serpents,  which  were  to 


SPANISH  SCULP  TUBE.  239 

serve  as  talismans,  amulets,  and  scarecrow  s,  to  drive 
the  latter  from  dwelling-houses  and  mosques  ;  so 
that  the  Spaniards  could  receive  no  lessons  from 
that  quarter. 

A  little  later,  when  the  Florentine,  Gherardo 
Stamina,  and  the  Fleming,  Pierre  de  Champagne 
(Pietro  Campaiia),  introduced  the  first  examples  of 
the  art  of  painting  into  Spain,  other  foreigners 
brought  models  of  that  of  sculpture.  Among  them 
was  Filippo  Vigarni,  called  Philippe  de  Bourgogne, 
doubtless  because  he  came  from  the  court  of  dukes 
Philippe-le-Hardi  or  Jean  sans-Peur,  for  he  was 
more  likely  a  Fleming  than  a  Burgundian.  He 
executed  some  important  works  in  the  cathedrals 
of  Burgos  and  Toledo,  but  principally  ornamented 
ones,  such  as  pulpits  and  choir  seats.  Torregiano, 
the  rival  of  Michael  Angelo  in  Italy,  already  men- 
tioned, was  another  of  these  artists.  We  know 
that  after  his  quarrel  with  the  illustrious  pensioner 
of  Lorenzo  Medici,  he  fled  to  Florence,  enlisted  as  a 
soldier,  gained  the  rank  of  ensign,  again  became  an 
artist,  and  travelled  to  Flanders,  England,  and  lastly 
to  Spain,  where  he  penetrated  as  far  as  Andalusia. 
In  1520  he  made  a  celebrated  statue  of  St.  Jerome, 
for  the  convent  of  Buenavista,  near  Seville,  which 
Goya  ranks  higher  even  than  the  Moses  of  Michael 
Angelo ;  and  at  Seville,  also,  he  executed  another 


24C  SPAXISH  SCULP TUl.'E. 

statue,  the  Madonna  holding  the  Infant  Jesus,  for  a 
duke  of  Arcos,  who,  for  some  unknown  reason, 
insulted  the  sculptor  by  paying  for  it  in  maravedis, 
which  were  carried  in  sacks  by  two  men.  Torre- 
glano  at  first  thought  he  had  received  an  immense 
sum  ;  but  when  he  discovered  that  all  this  heap  of 
copper  money  was  not  worth  thirty  gold  ducats,  he 
took  a  hammer  and  broke  his  statue.  Incensed  at 
this  offence  against  a  grandee  of  Spain,  the  duke 
accused  the  artist  before  the  Inquisition  of  impiety, 
and  the  unfortunate  Torregiano  starved  himself  to 
death  in  his  prison  (1522).  One  of  the  hands  of 
the  broken  Virgin,  which  is  very  beautiful,  is  pre- 
served at  Seville.  Resting  on  one  of  her  breasts, 
it  is  called  the  mano  de  la  teta,  and  has  been  repro- 
duced many  times  by  copies  or  casts. 

Of  the  Spanish  artists  who  went  to  Italy,  in  the 
reigns  of  Ferdinand  of  Aragon  and  Charles  V.,  to 
take  lessons  in  all  the  arts,  only  two,  Alonzo 
Berruguete  and  Jaspar  Becerra,  learnt  and  prac- 
tised the  three  arts  of  design.  The  former  (1480 — 
1 561)  was  taught  by  Michael  Angelo  himself,  and 
was  invited  to  Rome  by  Pope  Julius  II.,  to  assist 
his  illustrious  master  in  his  works  of  every  kind. 
He  returned  to  his  native  land  in  1520,  rich  in 
experience  and  talent,  and  was  distinguished  by 
Charles  V.,  who    nominated  him    his  painter  and 


SPANISH  SCULPTURE.  241 

sculptor  de  cdmara,  and  later,  to  honour  him  still 
further,   appointed    him  to  the    office    of    valet  de 
chambre.      After   this,    Berruguete    was    intrusted 
with   some   important    commissions   at  Valladolid, 
Toledo,  and   Granada.     At  Toledo  he  sculptured 
the  throne  of  the  Primate-Archbishop,  and  executed 
the    Transfiguration  of   Our    Saviour,  in    marble. 
He  is  said  to  have  given  the  emperor  the  design 
for  the   unfortunate   and  pretentious   palace  which 
Charles  V.  had  erected   in  the  very  heart   of  the 
Alhambra,  destroying  part  of  the  delicate  moresque 
structures  to  make  room  for  it  ;  but  this  is  a  mis- 
take :    the   architect  of  the  unfinished  palace  was 
Pedro  de  Machuca.    Berruguete  only  worked  at  the 
details  and  ornamentation,  in  which  he  excelled  ; 
and  even  now,  in  spite  of  the  barbarous  mutilations 
to  which  they  have   been   and   still   are   subjected, 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  they  were   of  the  finest  taste 
and  the  most  exquisite  delicacy.     They  are  chiefly 
bas-reliefs   executed    on    plaques    of  marble    of  a 
greyish  violet  colour,  very  hard  to  work,  but  very 
pleasant  to  look  at ;  and   they  do  great  credit   to 
Berruguete,  who  was  always  more  successful  as   a 
sculptor  than   as  a  painter  or  an   architect.     The 
subjects  are  the  triumphs  of  Charles  V.,  who  chose 
to  be   represented   as   a   nude    Hercules,   with  the 
club  and  the  skin  of  the  Nemaean  lion.     Later  we 

R 


2-12  SPANISH  SCULP  TUBE. 

see  Louis  XIV.  as  Apollo,  with  the  rays  and  thc^ 
lyre.  The  emperor,  however,  was  not  content  with 
the  motto  of  the  demi-god.  The  Ne plus  ultra  of 
the  columns  of  Abila  and  Calpe  seemed  too  modest 
for  him,  and  he  changed  it  into  Phis  oultre,  which 
was  written  in  the  French  of  the  day  on  all  the 
decorations  of  his  palace,  and  under  his  successors 
became  the  Plus  ultra  of  the  coat  of  arms  of  that 
monarchy  on  which  the  sun  never  sets. 

Caspar  Becerra  (i  520 — 1570),  who  is  very  favour- 
>ably  mentioned  by  Vasari  as  the  author  of  the 
drawings  in  a  book  on  anatomy,  published  at  Rome 
in  1554  by  Doctor  Juan  de  Valverde,  and  of  two 
anatomical  statues  highly  esteemed  in  the  schools, 
had  scarcely  returned  to  Spain  when  Philip  II.  did 
for  him  what  Charles  V.  did  for  Berruguete  :  he 
intrusted  him  with  several  works  in  the  old  Alcazar 
at  Madrid,  and  the  new  Pardo  palace,  and  to  mark 
his  royal  approval,  nominated  him  his  sculptor  in 
1562,  and  his  painter  in  1563.  Like  Berruguete, 
Becerra  was  a  greater  sculptor  than  painter.  Cean 
Bermudez  does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  in  this  par- 
ticular he  excelled  all  the  Spanish  artists  who  pre- 
ceded him,  and  that  he  was  surpassed  by  none  of 
those  who  succeeded  him.  His  masterpiece  is  said 
to  be  a  statue  of  Our  Lady  of  Solitude  (Nuestra 
Senora  de  la  Soledad),  which  was   ordered  by  the 


SPANISH  SCULP  TUBE.  243 

Infanta  Dona  Isabella  de  la  Paz,  daughter  of 
Philip  II.,  and  placed  in  the  chapel  of  the  convent 
of  the  Brothers  Minimes*  at  Madrid.  Many- 
miraculous  tales  \vere  told  of  this  statue  and  col- 
lected by  the  monk,  Fray  Antonio  de  Arcos,  in  a 
book  published  expressly  in  1640  ;  but  confining 
our  criticism  to  its  artistic  excellence  alone,  it  is 
impossible  to  deny  that  this  statue,  in  which 
tenderness,  suffering,  and  resignation  are  all  vividly 
expressed,  is  a  work  worthy  of  the  greatest  names 
in  the  most  famous  centuries. 

To  the  age  of  Philip  II.  and  Charles  V.  belong 
also  the  two  celebrated  tombs  erected  in  the  reign 
of  the  emperor  and  by  his  orders  in  the  old  chapel 
royal  {capilla  real)  of  the  cathedral  of  Granada. 
In  one  repose  the  Catholic  sovereigns,  Isabella  of 
Castille  and  Ferdinand  of  Aragon,  whose  marriage 
united  the  entire  Peninsula  in  one  monarchy,  from 
which  Portugal  was  subsequently  again  separated  ; 
in  the  other,  their  daughter,  Juana  la  Loca  (Joanna 
the  Crazy),  and  her  husband,  Philip  the  Handsome, 
of  Austria,  father  and  mother  of  Charles  V.,  to 
whom  their  combined  inheritance  gave  the  empire 
of  Germany,  with  the  Iberian  kingdom  and  the 
Indies.  These  tombs  are  both  sculptured  in  white 
marble,  and  on  each  are  statues  of  the  famous  pair 

*  Religious  order  of  St.  Francis  de  Paula. — (Tr.) 


244  SPANISH  SCULPTURE. 

whose  royal  dust  they  inclose.  The  first  is  a  solid 
socle  or  pedestal,  the  enlarged  base  of  which  gives 
it  an  appearance  of  strength  and  solidity,  whilst 
the  other  is  finer,  more  delicate,  and  elaborate,  so 
that  the  styles  of  the  two  tombs  correspond  with 
the  character  of  their  respective  tenants,  who 
would  seem  to  be  resting  on  them,  as  beds  of  state, 
for  the  last  time.  Looking  at  these  fine  tombs 
from  an  artistic  point  of  view,  it  is  impossible  to 
avoid  a  mental  comparison  with  those  of  Charles 
the  Bold  and  Mary  of  Burgundy  in  Notre  Dame 
at  Bruges,  and  again  with  those  of  the  dukes  of 
Burgundy,  Philip  the  Hardy  and  John  the  Fearless, 
which  were  transferred  from  the  old  Carthusian 
convent  of  Dijon  to  the  museum.  It  would  be  in- 
teresting to  draw  a  parallel  between  these  six  tombs, 
French,  Flemish,  and  Spanish,  made  for  princes  of 
the  same  family,  in  the  course  of  a  century  and  a  half 
For  my  part,  I  certainly  prefer  those  at  Granada  to 
those  at  Bruges  ;  and  those  at  Dijon,  which  are  the 
most  ancient,  to  the  tombs  at  Granada.  For  a 
long  time  the  last-named  enjoyed  the  advantage  of 
standing  in  a  vast  and  beautiful  chapel,  the  walls, 
pavement,  and  roof  of  which  were  entirely  com- 
posed of  black  stone,  the  pilasters,  voussoirs,  and 
pendentives  being  marked  out  in  fine  gold  lines, 
the  white  tombs  alone  standing  out  from  the  dark 


SPANISH  SCULP  TUBE.  245 

and  solemn  surroundings.  The  canons,  however, 
considered  the  chapel  royal  too  gloomy,  and  had  it 
whitewashed  from  top  to  bottom.  The  tombs, 
pavement,  roof,  and  walls  are  now  all  of  one 
colour,  all  equally  bright,  and  in  the  universal 
whiteness  nothing  stands  out  but  the  black  cassocks 
of  the  clergy. 

At  Granada  another  Spanish  artist  was  born, 
who,  like  Berruguete  and  Becerra,  has  been  com- 
pared to  Michael  Angelo,  because  he  cultivated 
the  three  arts  of  design.  His  name  was  Alonzo 
C^uno  (1601  — 1617).  His  father  was  a  common 
carpenter,  who  made  an  art  of  his  trade,  and  was  a 
joiner  {ensamblador)  of  those  huge  decorated  altars 
which  we  call  retables.  When  Alonzo  Cano  went 
to  Seville  and  took  up  his  abode  amongst  the 
masters  who  founded  the  school  of  this  Athens  of 
Andalusia,  he  made  up  his  mind  to  do  something 
more  than  learn  to  put  a  rotable  together  like  his 
father  ;  in  fact,  to  compose  one  entirely  himself, 
with  its  columns,  statues,  and  pictures  ;  to  be  at 
once  its  architect,  sculptor,  and  painter.  This  was 
how  he  became  a  threefold  artist.  He  took  lessons 
in  sculpture  from  a  certain  Juan  Martinez  Montailes, 
but  at  once  departed  from  his  master's  style  ;  and 
as  all  his  works  are  remarkable  for  a  simplicity  of 
attitude,  a   nobility  of  form,  and   a  good   taste  in 


24G  SPANISH  SCULP  TUBE. 

arrangement  unknown  before  him,  we  must  con- 
clude that  he  studied  in  preference  the  few  statues 
and  Greek  busts  which  were  then  at  Seville,  in  the 
palace  of  the  Dukes  of  Alcala,  at  least  if  we  sup- 
pose that  he  mastered  the  antique  without  having 
seen  Italy. 

About  1635,  Alonzo  Cano  erected  the  high  altar 
of  the  church  of  Lebrija,  which  is  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  works  of  the  kind.  The  statue  of  the 
Virgin  holding  the  Holy  Child,  which  occupies  the 
central  niche  of  the  retable,  is  especially  admirable. 
His  other  sculptures,  nearly  all  in  wood,  are  dis- 
tributed in  different  churches  at  Seville,  Cordova, 
Granada,  and  Madrid,  where  some  of  them  are 
still  proudly  shown.  Alonzo  Cano  combined  a 
fastidious  taste  with  a  very  hot  temper.  It  is 
related  of  him,  that  being  at  the  point  of  death,  he 
threw  a  crucifix  which  was  offered  to  his  lips  in  the 
face  of  the  officiating  priest,  because  he  thought 
it  clumsily  carved,  and  died  embracing  a  plain 
wooden  cross. 

It  may  be  said  that  the  art  of  statuary  became 
extinct  in  Spain  on  the  death  of  Alonzo  Cano. 
Its  cultivation  was  neglected,  the  carving,  even  of 
simple  wooden  ornaments,  was  discontinued,  and 
soon  no  one  could  be  found  able  to  set  up  a  church 
retable.      The    two  great  sisters  had    expired    to- 


SPANISH  SCULP  TUBE.  247 

gether.  At  the  same  time  that  Goya  made  his 
unexpected  appearance  as  a  painter,  a  young 
sculptor,  who  had  doubtless  just  returned  from 
Italy  or  France,  suddenly  produced  the  justly 
famous  group  of  Daoiz  and  Velarde  (the  two  chief 
victims  of  the  2nd  of  May,  1808),  which  has  been 
kept  ever  since  in  the  Mitseo  del  Rey.  Antonio 
Sola,  the  author  of  this  group,  died  before  he 
attained  maturity.  No  one  took  up  his  chisel,  at 
least  with  any  success,  and  at  the  Universal 
Exhibition  not  a  single  Spanish  work  obtained 
any  distinction  in  the  open  competition  of  the 
sculptors  of  every  nation. 

There  is,  however,  a  kind  of  scnlptnre  in  Spain 
which  at  least  deserves  to  be  mentioned.  We 
allude  to  the  little  figures  in  coloured  paste, 
manufactured  at  Malaga,  Granada,  and  Valencia. 
This  style,  though  small,  is  pleasing,  and  it  has 
been  practised  by  some  true  artists.  In  one  of  the 
rooms  of  the  Academy  of  San  Fernando  at  Madrid, 
for  instance,  there  is  a  long  series  of  these  little 
figures,  rather  larger  than  usual,  being  about  a 
quarter  the  size  of  life,  which  are  of  perfect  work- 
manship. They  are  divided  into  fifty  or  sixty 
groups,  representing  different  incidents  of  the 
Massacre  of  the  Innocents ;  and  their  author,  Juan 
Gincs  of  Valencia,  flourished  in  the  first  half  of  the 


248  SPANISH  SOULPTUBE. 

present  century.  The  details  of  these  groups  are 
of  an  infinite  variety  ;  the  execution  is  strangely 
and  wonderfully  powerful ;  and  if  they  have  a  fault, 
it  is  that  they  are  too  exactly  copied  from  nature, 
as  the  colours  on  them  make  them  look  like  wax 
figures.  They  prove,  however,  that  Spanish 
sculpture  might  have  kept  pace  with  the  progress 
of  painting,  had  it  not  been  so  entirely  neglected 
after  Alonzo  Cano  produced  his  beautiful  works. 


249 


CHAPTER    IV. 

GERMAN   SCULPTURE. 

OCULPTURE  was  cultivated  even  less  in 
*^  Germany  than  in  Spain  during  the  Middle 
Ages.  Indeed  we  may  assert,  almost  uncon- 
ditionally, that  not  a  single  piece  of  statuary 
was  contributed  to  the  common  stock  by  a  German 
artist  until  the  present  century.  From  the  banks 
of  the  Rhine  to  those  of  the  Niemen  we  shall  find 
no  works  of  the  chisel  but  a  few  decorations  of  no 
particular  style  in  the  old  Gothic  cathedrals.  It  is 
but  a  popular  legend  which  attributes  the  delicate 
stone  carvings,  which  adorn  the  tower  of  the  won- 
derful cathedral  of  Strasburg,  erected  by  Erwin  of 
Steinbach,  to  his  daughter  Sabina  ;  and  although 
history  has  preserved  the  names  of  some  architects 
of  the  same  age,  such  as  Puchspaum,  author  of  the 
Saint  Stephen  of  Vienna,  I  know  of  no  other 
sculptor  besides  this  daughter  of  Erwin  of  Baden. 
It  was  different  in  the  time  of  the  Renaissance. 


2cO  GERMAN  SCULPTURE. 

Sculptors  from  Germany  then  practised  their  art 
even  in  Italy,  for  Vasari  says  explicitly  :  "  Nicolas 
of  Pisa  surpassed  the  Germans  who  worked  with 
him."  But  these  modest  artists,  simple  artisans, 
did  not  put  their  names  to  their  works,  so  that  the 
Calvary  of  Spires  and  the  copper  Baptistery  of 
Saint  Sebald  at  Nuremberg,  are  by  unknown 
authors.  We  know,  however,  that  the  beautiful 
fountain  of  Nuremberg,  erected  rather  later,  is  by 
Sebald  Schuffer,  and  that  the  long  bas-reliefs  of 
the  Passion  in  the  same  town  are  the  work  of  Hans 
Decker  and  Adam  Krafift.  At  Nuremberg,  too,  is 
the  beautiful  tomb  of  St.  Sebald,  which  has  justly 
established  the  fame  of  Peter  Vischer.  This  tomb 
combines  a  number  of  figures  of  saints,  apostles, 
and  angels,  with  many  others  which  belong  not  to 
Christianity  but  to  universal  history.  "  At  the 
foot  of  St.  Sebald's  tomb,"  says  Woltmann, 
"Vischer  has  grouped  the  heroes  of  Judaism  and  of 
heathen  antiquity  ;  children  play  with  lions  or  are 
cradled  in  the  calyx  of  flowers  ;  a  host  of  sirens, 
tritons,  and  satyrs,  the  entire  ancient  mythology, 
defile  before  our  eyes.  The  whole  universe  ad- 
vances to  render  praise  to  the  Saviour."  Peter 
Vischer  left  his  own  portrait  in  the  dress  of  a  work- 
man amongst  these  figures  ;  and  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  he  lived  very  near  the  time  of  Albert 


GERMAN  8CULFTURE.  251 

Durer,  so  that  he  does  not  belong  even  to  tne 
Renaissance,  but  to  the  golden  age  of  German  art. 
In  the  room  leading  to  that  devoted  to  French 
statuary  in  the  museum  of  modern  sculpture 
in  the  Louvre,  which  might  appropriately  be 
called  the  foreign  room,  on  account  of  the 
variety  of  objects  it  contains,  a  few  small  speci- 
mens of  German  plastic  art  of  the  fifteenth  to 
the  sixteenth  century  have  been  collected.  Can 
they  be  called  sculpture  .''  I  think  not,  for  they  do 
not  include  one  statue,  one  high  relief,  or  one  piece 
of  large  proportions  and  grand  style.  All  are  little 
figures  in  very  low  relief  Neither  marble  nor 
bronze  are  used,  but  materials  not  employed  else- 
where. They  are  rather  carvings  than  sculptures, 
and  not  one  is  accompanied  by  its  author's  name. 
The  following  are  hung  on  the  walls  in  the  embra- 
sures of  the  windows  :  a  Descent  from  the  Cross,  in 
yellow  copper  ;  the  Triwnph  of  Maximilian,  deli- 
cately and  carefully  carved  in  wood  ;  the  Repose  in 
Egypt,  after  Albert  Diirer,  another  tedious  work, 
cut  in  the  hard  calcareous  stone  called  hone-stone  ; 
some  armorial  bearings  slightly  incised  on  the  same 
hard  stone,  the  relief  being  obtained  by  the  use  of 
aquafortis,  and  afterwards  coloured.  This  was  a 
revival  of  the  old  process  which  led  to  the  discovery 
of  lithography. 


252  GERMAN  8CULPTURK. 

It  was  the  same  during  the  age  of  the  three 
schools  of  German  painting  at  Nuremberg,  Augs- 
burg, and  Dresden,  represented  by  Albert  Durer, 
Holbein,  and  Lucas  Kranach.  Not  a  single  sculptor 
arose  capable  of  competing  with  these  great 
masters,  and  if  we  wish  to  find  a  piece  of  sculpture 
worthy  to  be  compared  to  their  canvases,  we  must 
turn  to  one  of  themselves,  who,  like  the  great 
artists  of  Italy,  aspired  to  becoming  a  universal 
artist.  Albert  Diirer  executed  sculptures  in  wood 
and  in  ivory,  and  such  are  the  grandeur  of  style 
and  skill  of  workmanship,  that  they  may  be  con- 
sidered true  works  of  art  in  spite  of  the  unsuitable- 
ness  of  the  material  employed.  In  the  small 
museum  at  Carlsruhe,  for  instance,  there  is  a  little 
ivory  group  in  high  and  low  relief  of  three  nude 
females,  which  might  be  called  the  Three  Graces, 
only  one  of  them  is  a  dignified  matron,  and  on 
the  ground  a  fourth  woman,  not  so  well  preserved, 
is  distinguishable,  who  is  apparently  taking  part  in 
a  round  dance.  The  figures  are  not  only  correctly 
proportioned,  they  are  so  full  of  graceful  and  pleas- 
ing beauty,  that  we  are  not  surprised  to  discover 
the  celebrated  monogram — cut  in  relief  also,  so  that 
forgery  is  impossible — so  often  traced  on  austere 
paintings  and  powerful  engravings.  Here  Albert 
Diirer  has  proved  that  vigour  was    not    the    only 


G  Eli  MA  N  SCULP  TUBE.  2'  3 

characteristic  of  his  masculine  genius.  With  the 
graver  or  brush  in  hand  he  was  Dorian,  ivory  made 
him  Ionian.  The  name  it  bears,  the  curiosity  it 
awakens,  and  the  admiration  which  it  ought  to 
inspire,  combine  to  render  this  group  of  inestimable 
value. 

To  understand  the  sudden  decline  of  the  two 
great  sisters  in  Germany,  we  have  only  to  remember 
that  there  the  Protestant  religion,  less  showy  than 
the  Catholic,  checked  the  progress  of  the  arts, 
whilst  the  terrible  Thirty  Years'  War  {i6iS — 1648), 
with  its  attendant  ravages  and  desolation,  soon 
followed  to  complete  their  ruin  and  deal  their  death- 
blow. In  speaking  of  German  sculpture,  as  of 
painting,  we  must  therefore  pass  over  the  entire 
interval  between  the  three  schools  already  men- 
tioned, which  became  extinct  with  their  founders, 
and  the  renaissance  attempted  at  the  beginning  of 
the  present  century  by  Overbeck,  Cornelius,  and 
their  followers. 

A  marble  group  of  importance,  and  worthy  of 
the  notice  of  visitors  for  many  reasons,  was  placed 
among  the  plaster  casts  of  celebrated  ancient  and 
modern  statues  at  Frankfort-on-the-Main,  by  one  of 
richest  bankers  of  that  commercial  city,  in  which 
the  cradle  of  the  Rothschild  family  may  still  be 
seen  in  the  Judengasse  (Jews'  Street).     We  allude 


l;54 


GERMAN  SCULPTURE. 


to  Ariadne  on  the.  Panther,  signed,  Danneckcr,  of 
Stuttgart,  1 8 14.  This  Ariadne  is  very  celebrated, 
at  least  on  the  borders  of  the  Rhine,  from  Mann- 
heim- to  Coblentz.  The  hihabitants  of  Frankfort 
pride  themselves  on  its  possession,  and  have  treated 


■^^>-|il|i,i|g|ij|jl„^.^j^li 


Pli"i-  - 


I 


^^^iiilfiiiiiiii  iiiiiiiiiiiiiii  III!  III!  II  mil 

FiJ,^  49. — Ariadne  on  the  Panther.     By  DaunecKer. 
(Frankfort-on-the-Main.) 

it  as  the  Neapolitans  did  the  great  mosaic  of  Pom- 
peii, reproducing  it,  as  a  national  glory,  in  bronze, 
plaster,  ivory,  and  even  in  stag's  horn.  It  is  a  fine 
work,  certainly,  but  I  thinlc  it  far  beneath  its  repu- 


GERMAN  SCULP TUIIK.  255 

tation.  1l\\q Ariadne — which  appears  to  be  an  imi- 
tation of  an  antique  fresco,  Nereis  carried  by  a 
Monster — is  stretched  at  full  length  on  the  back  of 
a  panther,  or,  rather,  chimera,  for  the  mythological 
animal  which  supports  her  is  not  a  known  living 
creature.  Her  attitude  is  graceful  and  pleasing, 
although  slightly  distorted.  The  upper  part  of  the 
figure  of  the  beloved  of  Bacchus — not  yet  deserted, 
but  triumphant — is  less  beautiful  than  the  lower 
limbs.  The  legs  are  very  fine,  both  in  design  and 
execution ;  the  torso  is  also  very  good,  but  not 
equal  to  the  legs  ;  and  the  head  appears  to  me  the 
feeblest  part  of  the  group.  Ariadne  is  guilty  of 
the  vulgar  gesture  called  turning  up  the  nose ;  her 
forehead  is  narrow,  her  chin  broad.  The  artist 
evidently  intended  to  give  her  the  antique  shape, 
the  Greek  type  of  face  ;  but  he  has  only  succeeded 
in  producing  a  cold  and  clumsy  imitation.  The 
studied  style  of  coiffure  is  a  failure  also  ;  it  is  too 
modern,  too  coquettish,  nor  is  the  execution  re- 
markably delicate.  We  need  not  go  back  to  the 
great  age  of  the  Donatellos  and  Michael  Angel os 
for  comparisons  :  we  find  Dannecker's  Ariadne  iz.x 
surpassed  by  the  Magdaleiie  and  Terpsichore  of  his 
immediate  predecessor,  Canova,  and  it  is  excelled 
by  many  later  works  bearing  the  names  of  Rauch, 
Schadow,    Schwanthaler,    Rietschel     Kiss     Drake, 


256  GERMAN  ."SCULPTURE. 

Begas,  etc.  Nevertheless  its  fame  is  justifiable,  and 
easily  explained.  If  I  were  to  be  asked  to  state 
its  chief  and  most  indisputable  merit,  I  should 
answer:  Its  date,  1814.  After  the  interminable 
wars  of  the  Empire,  during  which  all  the  arts  lay- 
dormant,  Germany  greeted  their  revival  in  this 
Ariadne  with  as  much  joy  and  pride  as  peace 
itself.  It  was  the  glory  of  the  artist,  and  is  still  the 
honour  of  his  work  to  have  inaugurated  this  renais- 
sance. 

The  Belvedere  of  Vienna  possesses  one  of  the 
best  productions  of  this  German  revival,  the  Jason 
carrying  away  the  Goldeji  Fleece,  by  Joseph  Kaesch- 
mann,  executed  at  Rome  in  1829,  in  the  more 
graceful  than  powerful  style  of  the  Canovas  and 
Thorwaldsens.  Amongst  the  monstrosities  sur- 
rounding it,  this  Jason  appears  an  incomparable 
masterpiece. 

At  the  same  time,  but  at  Berlin,  Christian  Rauch 
(1777 — 1857)  not  only  opened  a  studio,  he  founded 
a  school.  The  work  which  placed  him  at  once  at 
the  head  of  all  the  sculptors  of  Germany,  is  the 
tomb  at  Charlottenburg,  of  Louisa,  called  the  beau- 
tiful queen,  wife  of  Frederick  William  III.,  and 
mother  of  the  present  king  and  his  predecessor. 
Rauch  represented  her  reposing  on  her  tomb,  and 
he  made  another  statue  of  her  on  foot  for  Potsdam. 


Fig.  50. — Bronze  monument  erected  to  the  memory  of  Frederick  the 
Great.     By  Christian  Ranch.     (Berlin.) 


GERMAN  SCULP TUHE.  257 

This  queen  was  his  benefactress  ;  she  removed 
him  from  the  obscurity  of  the  palace,  and  sent  him 
to  Rome,  where  he  made  rapid  progress  in  his  art 
under  the  enlightened  guidance  of  the  learned 
William  von  Humboldt.  On  his  return  to  Prussia, 
Ranch  devoted  a  long  life  to  the  production  of  a 
number  of  great  works,  mostly  portraits.  The  best 
of  these  numerous  statues  and  busts  are,  the  bronze 
statues  of  Generals  Scharnorst,  Bulow,  Yorck, 
Blucher,  of  King  Maximilian  of  Bavaria  at  Munich, 
of  Luther  at  Wittemberg,  of  Albert  Diirer  at 
Nuremberg,  and  six  marble  Victories  in  the  Wal- 
halla,  etc.  But  the  chief  work  of  his  whole  life  was 
the  magnificent  bronze  monument  erected  to  the 
memory  of  Frederick  the  Great,  in  1851,  in  the 
grand  square  (Unter  den  Linden)  of  Berlin.  The 
base  of  the  pedestal,  which  is  twenty-five  feet  high, 
is  surrounded  by  the  chief  characters  of  Frederick's 
reign,  including  men  of  letters,  such  as  Kant  and 
Lessing,  as  well  as  warriors,  like  Ziethen  and  the 
Prince  of  Anhalt-Dessau  ;  whilst  the  king  himself, 
on  horseback,  seems  to  tower  above  the  city  which 
owes  its  pre-eminence  to  him,  and  over  the  whole 
of  that  mighty  monarchy  of  which  he  was  the  trnt: 
founder. 

We  said  that  Christian  Rauch  founded  a  school  : 
it  5tiU  exists,  carried   on  by  his    pupils,   amongst 

S 


>58 


GERMAiJ  SCULP'lUliE 


whom  Augustus  Kiss  and  Frederic  Drake  are 
especially  distinguished.  The  latter  is  the  author 
of  the  charming  high-reliefs  which  embellish  the 
pedestal  of  the  statue  of  Frederick  William  III   in 


llinili!iliiilinwilliil!llltlll!l*lkffillWNRiM 


Fig.  51. — The  Amazon,  by  Aug.  Kisa     (Berlin.) 


the  T/iiergarten  of  Berlin,  and  the  former  of  the 
Amazon  on  horseback  attacked  by  a  lioness,  placed 
in  front  of  the  peristyle  of  the  museum  This 
bronze  group    is   splendid,  full  of  action  and  life. 


GERMAN  SCULPTURE. 


?59 


The  warrior-maiden  of  the  Thermodon,  excited  by- 
anger  rather  than  by  terror ;  the  queen  of  the 
desert,  chnging  to  the  horse's  neck  with  teeth  and 
claws  ,  the  horse,  quivering  beneath  her  horrible 
embrace,    are   all    most    powerfully    rendered,    and 


Fig.  52. — Goethe  and  Schiller. 

form  an  admirable  whole.  We  are  tempted  to 
address  the  horse  as  the  Greek  poet  did  that  of 
Lysippus  :  "  What  a  grand  head  !  what  flames  are 
emitted  from  his  nostrils!     If  the  rider  touch  him 


260  (iKUMAN  SCULPTURE. 

with  his  heels,  he  will  carry  him  onwards,  for  the 
bronze  lives."  (Grec.  Anthol.)  I  venture,  however, 
to  find  one  fault  with  this  beautiful  statue.  I  do 
not  approve  of  the  rough  locks  worn  by  the  heroine 
beneath  her  Phrygian  cap.  They  surround  her 
face  with  a  kind  of  aureola,  which  the  material 
renders  stiff  and  heavy,  and  they  give  her  the 
appearance  of  a  Gorgon  with  the  headdress  of  ser- 
pents. Unfortunately  an  early  death  prevented  Kiss 
from  making  a  companion  statue  to  his  Amazon. 

After  the  Prussian  Ranch,  Ernest  Rietschel,  a 
Saxon  (1804— 1 86i),  took  the  lead  in  Germa» 
sculpture.  Amongst  others,  the  following  works 
are  ascribed  to  him  :  a  line  group  of  the  Madonna 
adoring  Iut  Dead  Son,  which  the  Italians  called  a 
Pieta  ;  the  marble  statues  of  the  four  great  sculp- 
tors of  Greece,  placed  in  the  facade  of  the  new 
museum  of  Dresden  ;  and  the  beautiful  bronze  group 
of  Goethe  and  Schiller,  which  was  cast  at  Munich, 
in  1857,  by  Herr  Miillcr,  and  now  adorns  the  Theate?-- 
platz  at  Weimar.  Whilst  preserving  the  appro- 
priate character  of  each  of  the  illustrious  friends, 
Rietschel  has  endeavoured  to  express  the  warm 
and  tender  affection  which  united  them  till  death, 
and  which  nothing,  not  even  their  success  and  fame, 
could  alter.  The  great  minds  of  both  poets  were 
above  jealousy. 


GEBMAX  SCULPTURE.  261 

The  reputation  of  German  sculpture  is  worthily 
sustained  in  our  own  day  by  Herr  Frederick  Drake, 
who  gained  a  valuable  prize  at  the  Universal  Ex- 
hibition, and  by  Herr  Reinhold  Begas,  who  would 
certainly  have  been  successful  had  he  competed. 

Wii  will  now  speak  of  the  Dane  Thorwaldsen 
(Albert  Bartholomew,  1770— 1844),  as  we  cannot 
devote  a  chapter  to  one  man.  He  was  the  con- 
temporary and  rival  of  Canova,  and  they  are  justly 
classed  together  as  the  two  great  sculptors  of  the 
period,  including  the  end  of  the  last  century  and 
the  beginning  of  the  present.  Educated  in  Italy, 
whither  he  was  enabled  to  go  by  a  drawing  prize 
awarded  to  him,  studying  the  same  models  as 
Canova,  with  the  same  opinions  on  the  practice 
of  their  art,  and  forming  himself  after  the  same 
style,  the  Danish  artist  necessarily  resembled  the 
Venetian.  Thorwaldsen,  also,  counteracted  the 
influence  of  Michael  Angelo  on  Italian  art,  pre- 
ferring, like  Canova,  grace  to  power,  and  delicacy 
of  execution  to  boldness  and  originality  of  thought, 
at  the  same  time  avoiding,  like  his  rival,  the  affec- 
tation of  Bernini.  When  still  young,  he  became 
known  by  a  colossal  statue  of  Jason  bringing  home 
the  Golden  Fleece.  Many  others  followed  this  first 
production  :  a  colossal  Mars,  v/hich  at  once  became 
famous  ;  an  Adonis,  which   Canova  himself  called 


262 


GERMAN  SCULPTURE. 


a  masterpiece ;  the  Graces,  the  Muses,  Venus, 
Apollo,  Mercury ,  then  a  j\Iadon7ia  for  Naples, 
Christ  and  the  Twelve  Apostles  for  the  cathedral  of 
Copenhagen,  the  equestrian  statue  of  Poniatowski 
at  Warsaw,  that  of  Gutenberg  at  Mayence,  etc. 
Thorwaldsen  was  as  successful  with  bas-reliefs  as 
with  works  in  full  relief  A  great  many  by  him 
have  been  reproduced   in  casts  or  engravings,  and 


1 

r->i 

^J^ 

^ 

^x 

=5^. 

1 

\ 

1 

T^ 

% 

T-^ 

f 

J,cirL/^s..'- 

7:s,rr,, 

Fig.  53. — Entrance  of  Alexander  into  Babylon,  by  Thorwaldseru 

the  most  remarkable  is  the  long  series  repre- 
senting the  Entrance  of  Alexander  into  Babylon, 
which  was  ordered  by  Napoleon,  and  now  embel- 
lishes the  great  hall  of  the  palace  of  Christiansborg 
in  Denmark.  Speaking  of  it,  a  biographer  of  the 
artist  says :  "  It  is  perhaps  the  most  admirable 
masterpiece  produced  by  art  since  the  ever  glorious 
age  of  Grecian  sculpture."    When  old  and  wealthy, 


GERMAN  SCULPTURE.  263 

Thorwaldscn  devoted  part  of  his  large  fortune  to 
the  foundation  of  a  museum  at  Copenhagen.  This 
building  bears  his  name,  and  contains  a  considerable 
number  of  the  diverse  works  which  rendered  him 
illustrious. 


264 


CHAPTER    V. 

FLEMISH   SCULPTURE. 

WE  gave  the  name  of  the  Painting  of  the 
Lozv  Countries  to  the  sister  schools  of 
Flanders  and  Holland,  looking  upon  them  as  two 
manifestations  of  one  grand  style.  It  would  be 
useless,  however,  to  try  .and  find  a  common  title  for 
the  two  schools  of  sculpture,  which  was  but  little 
and  very  indififerently  cultivated  in  Flanders,  and 
not  at  all  in  Holland.  Possessing  no  marble 
quarries,  no  copper-mines,  not  even  stone,  and 
drawing  her  very  timber  supplies  from  abroad, 
Holland  appears  from  the  first  to  have  renounced 
an  art  for  which  nature  had  denied  her  the 
materials.  No  sculptor  rivalled  Lucas  van  Leyden, 
Rembrandt,  and  Paul  Potter,  nor  were  there  any 
statuettes  or  carvings  equal  to  the  porcelain  of  the 
Chevalier  Van  der  Werff  The  bronze  or  marble 
statues  in  the  public  squares,  museums,  or  town-halls 
of  certain  Dutch  towns,  are  the  work  of  foreign  artists, 
so  that  we  have  only  to  treat  of  Flemish  sculoture. 


FLEMISH  SCULPTURE.  265 

It  is  at  Bruges,  the  town  rendered  illustrious  by 
Hemling  and  the.  brothers  Van  Eyck,  that  we  find 
not  merely  the  best  but  the  only  proofs  that  the  art 
of  sculpture  was   practised  in  Flanders  at  the  same 
time  as  that  of  painting.     Whilst  Jan  Van   Eyck 
was    inventing  and   teaching   the    process    of    oil- 
painting,  some  artist  fellow-countrymen  were  work- 
ing in  wood,  marble,  and  bronze.     On  entering  the 
church  of  Notre  Dame,  the  visitor  is   at   once  con- 
ducted to  the  celebrated  tombs  of  Charles  the  Bold 
and  his  daughter,  Mary  of  Burgundy,  from  which 
the  movable  planking  is  lifted  with  great  care  and 
ceremony.      These    two    tombs    are    simply   black 
marble  slabs,  on  which  repose  effigies  in  gilt  copper. 
Charles  is  in  warlike  costume,  wearing  a  beautifully 
chased  suit  of  armour,  the  ducal   crown,  and  the 
badge  of  the  Golden  Fleece — an  order  of  chivalry 
founded  at  Bruges  in  1429  by  his  father,  Philip  the 
Good,  the  collation   of  the   insignia   of  which   has 
been   divided   between  the  king  of  Spain  and  the 
emperor  of  Austria  since  the   death  of  Charles  V. 
The  duke's  helmet  and  gauntlets  lie  beside  him, 
and  his  feet  rest  on  a  lion.     Round  the  frieze  are 
arranged  the  coats  of  arms  of  his  different  domi- 
nions ;  on  the  sides  of  the  slab,  those  of  his  con- 
temporary sovereigns,  of  the  emperor,  kings,  dukes, 
counts,  crowned  prelates,  etc.,  and  on  the  surface  is 


266  FLEMISH  SCULPTURE. 

engraved  the  motto  of  this  enterprising  and  per- 
severing prince,  Je  I'ay  ampris,  bien  en  aviengne. 
It  would  have  been  well  to  inscribe  on  his  tomb 
the  words  pronounced  by  Duke  Rene  of  Lorraine 
when  the  corpse  of  Charles  was  found  after  the 
battle  of  Nancy  :  Voire  dine  ait  Dieu,  bean  cousin, 
car  vons  avez  fait  moult  manx  et  doulenrs.  The 
head  of  Mary  of  Burgundy  rests  on  a  large  cushion, 
and  her  feet  on  two  small  lapdogs.  Her  statue  is 
chiefly  remarkable  for  the  delicate  carving  of  the 
draperies  and  clothes.  Mary  died,  as  we  know,  at 
twenty-five,  from  a  fall  from  her  horse,  and  her 
tomb,  made  several  years  before  that  of  her  father, 
is  the  better  of  the  two.  The  branches  of  the  trees 
in  copper,  and  the  little  angels  of  the  same  metal 
which  support  the  armorial  bearings — all  the  orna- 
ments, in  fact — are  of  the  most  delicate  execution. 

But  although  this  tomb  of  Mary  of  Burgundy 
may  surpass  those  of  her  son,  Philip  the  Good,  and 
oi  her  daughter-in-law,  Joanna  the  Crazy,  which 
we  noticed  in  the  cathedral  of  Granada,  it  is  by 
no  means  equal  to  those  of  her  ancestors,  John  the 
Fearless  and  Philip  the  Hardy,  Dukes  of  Burgundy, 
now  in  the  museum  of  Dijon.  All  the  details  of 
these  Lilliputian  buildings,  the  pointed  arches 
three  feet  high,  the  cloisters,  in  which  pace  figures 
fifteen  inches  long,  the  pinnacles,  the  little  angels, 


o 

3 


C 


C 

C- 


o 

3 


FLEMISH  SCULPTURE.  267 

the  marble  and  alabaster  lacework,  are  remarkable, 
not  only  for  exquisite  finish  and  perfection  of  work- 
manship, but  also  for  elegance  of  design,  harmony 
of  proportions,  and  suitable  arrangements.  The 
statuettes  of  the  mourners,  that  is,  of  the  praying 
monks  and  weeping  officers  of  the  palace,  are 
really  wonderful.  There  are  eighty  small  figures, 
each  of  which  taken  alone  is  a  little  masterpiece, 
and  seen  together,  their  beauty  and  excellence  are 
enhanced  by  contrast.  The  attitudes,  of  extra- 
ordinary variety,  are  all  natural,  the  expressions 
all  true  and  full  of  feeling,  whilst  the  style  of  the 
heads,  the  fall  of  the  draperies,  and  the  delicacy  of 
the  execution,  surpass  all  that  we  should  have  ex- 
pected from  the  age  in  which  they  were  produced. 
These  tombs,  the  details  of  which  will  bear  com- 
parison with  the  bas-reliefs  of  Ghiberti  and  of  Jean 
Goujon,  may  well  be  considered  the  most  precious 
relics  of  the  period  immediately  preceding  the 
great  Renaissance. 

I  mention  them  here  because  they  are  connected 
with  Flemish  art.  The  first  named,  that  of  Philip 
the  Hardy,  finished  in  1404,  is  the  work  of  three 
Flemish  artists,  Claux  Sluter,  assisted  by  his 
nephew,  Claux  de  Vou.sonne,  and  by  Jacques  de 
Baerz,  all  three  image-makers  to  the  duke  of  Bur- 
gundy.    The  tomb  of  Jolin  the  Fearless  was  erected 


268  FLEMISH  SCULPTURE. 

forty  years  later  by  a  Spanish  artist,  Juan  de  la 
Huerta,  a  native  of  Daroca  in  Aragon,  who  was 
aided  by  two  Burgundian  artisans,  Jehan  de  Drogues 
and  Antoine  Lemouturier.  I  could  not  find  out  at 
Bruges  who  were  the  authors  of  the  tombs  of 
Charles  and  Mary  ;  their  names  are  probably  for- 
gotten there  now. 

We  must  not  leave  Bruges  without  visiting  the 
Palais  de  Justice.  In  the  room  in  which  the 
juries  delibe  ;.!e  is  the  famous  chimneypiece  of 
carved  and  sculptured  wood,  of  which  the  cast  is  in 
the  Louvre.  There  is  a  legend  connected  with 
this  chimneypiece.  It  is  said  that  a  certain 
Hermann  Glosencamp,  condemned  to  death  for 
I  know  not  what  misdeed,  asked  permission  to 
produce  one  last  specimen  of  his  handicraft.  He 
was  a  wood-carver.  With  the  aid  of  his  dausfhter 
he  undertook  this  famous  mantelpiece,  which  saved 
him  from  the  gallows,  and  gained  his  full  pardon. 
The  statues  which  embellish  it  are  nearly  the  size 
of  life.  In  the  centre  is  Charles  V.,  on  foot  and  in 
armour,  holding  a  naked  sword  in  one  hand  and 
the  globe  in  the  other.  On  the  right  are  his  great- 
grandfather, Charles  the  Bold,  and  Margaret  of 
England,  his  third  wife  ;  on  the  left,  his  grand- 
parents, Mary  of  Burgundy  and  Maximilian  of 
Austria.      Spirits,   Cupids,  armorial    bearings,    and 


FLEMISH  hCVLP'lUBE.  209 

different  ornaments  fill  up  the  spaces  between  these 
five  statues,  and  complete  the  general  decoration 
above  the  frieze  of  the  chimneypiece,  which  latter 
represents  the  history  of  Susannah  in  very  low 
alabaster  bas-reliefs,  and  is  by  a  certain  Guyot  de 
Beaugrant.  It  would  be  difficult  to  excel  the  good 
taste  of  the  arrangements  and  the  beauty  of  the 
workmanship  of  this  masterpiece.  No  artist,  even 
to  save  his  head,  could  have  done  better  than 
Hermann  Glosencamp.  I  am  careful  not  to  say 
cou/d  do  better,  for  the  art  of  sculpturing  in  wood, 
the  art  of  Germany  as  well  as  of  Spain,  of  the  North 
as  well  as  of  the  South,  is  almost  lost  ;  and  when 
we  look  at  the  fine  works  it  has  produced,  our 
reeret  is  increased  that  it  should  hav^e  been  so 
completely  abandoned. 

Between  this  age  and  the  beginning  of  our  own 
I  find  no  other  Flemish  work  to  mention  worthy 
of  being  classed  amongst  the  wonders  of  sculpture, 
and  Rubens,  Vandyck,  and  Teniers  had  no  sculp- 
tors to  rival  them  more  than  Rembrandt.  In  our 
own  day  Messrs.  Gallait,  Leys,  and  others,  are  con- 
sidered the  renovators  of  painting,  as  these  artists 
were  formerly  ;  and  with  them  we  must  class  Messrs. 
Geefs,  Fiers,  Sopers,  and  Wiener,  who  are  equally 
eminent  and  successful  revivers  of  sculpture. 


270 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ENGLISH   SCULPTURE. 

THE  first  thing  we  see  when  we  enter  the 
British  Museum,  to  visit  the  basalt  and  por- 
phyry images  of  Egypt,  the  alabaster  slabs  of 
Assyria,  and  the  marbles  of  Halicarnassus  and  the 
Parthenon,  is  the  pediment  of  the  modern  building, 
which  contains  from  twelve  to  fifteen  allegorical 
figures,  the  work  of  the  most  celebrated  sculptor 
of  England,  Sir  Richard  Westmacott.  Taken 
separately,  these  marble  statues  are  not  without 
a  certain  merit,  for  they  are  finely  and  carefully 
executed  ;  more  so,  indeed,  than  the  point  of  view 
requires,  as  they  can  only  be  seen  from  below  and 
at  a  distance.  But  as  a  whole  they  are  wanting  in 
harmony,  grace,  and  dignity,  and  a  more  striking 
and  unpardonable  defect  is  the  pretension  of  the 
subject  they  represent — the  Progress  of  Civilization. 
If  the  English  had  chosen  this  subject  for  the  chief 
entrance  of  the  docks  of  London,  the  naval  arsenal 


ENGLISH  SCULPTUBE.  271 

at  Woolwich,  the  observatory  of  Greenwich,  or  the 
northern  railway,  nothing  could  have  been  more 
suitable,  for  it  is  in  these  places  that  they  can 
prove  the  superiority  of  the  present  over  the  past, 
and  the  continuous  progress  of  mankind  in  theo- 
retical and  practical  science  ;  but  in  the  arts, 
talent  is  an  individual  gift — an  artist  cannot  trans- 
mit his  talent  at  his  death  any  more  than  his  soul. 
And  does  modern  London  hope  to  have  excelled 
ancient  Greece  ?  A  strange  mode  surely  of  proving 
the  progress  of  civilization,  to  place  English  and 
Grecian  art  in  juxtaposition — to  challenge  com- 
parison between  the  brick  architecture  of  Sir 
Robert  Smirke  and  the  marble  buildings  of  Ictinus 
and  Callicrates — between  this  tympanum  by  Sir 
Richard  Westmacott  and  the  pediments  of  Pheidias! 
In  my  brief  review,  in  a  former  work,  of  the 
richest  collections  in  London,  including  the  national 
museum,  my  readers  were  doubtless  surprised  not 
to  find  a  word  on  sculpture.  But  what  can  be 
said  .''  "  Where  there  is  nothing,"  says  the  popular 
proverb,  "  the  king  loses  his  rights,"  and  so  does 
criticism.  Except  for  an  inferior  marble  statue  of 
the  painter,  David  Wilkie,  the  National  Gallery  con- 
tains as  yet  nothing  but  pictures  ;  and  I  have  met 
with  no  single  work  worth  mentioning  by  a  native 
sculptor    in    any    public    or   private    collection    or 


272  ENGLISH  SCULF'IUBE. 

drawing-room.  It  is  the  same  in  the  public  gardens, 
parks,  and  squares.  Could  I  write  a  description 
of  the  bronze  equestrian  statue  of  the  Duke  of 
Wellington,  erected  in  Piccadilly  in  front  of  his 
residence,  and  opposite  that  other  grotesque  statue 
representing  this  illustrious  statesman  and  warrior 
on  foot  as  a  Fighting  Achilles,  which  is  perfectly 
nude  and  perfectly  black  .''  The  equestrian  statue 
is  seen  in  profile,  not  full-face  ;  that  is  to  say,  it  is 
placed  sideways  on  the  miserable  triumphal  arch 
which  serves  as  a  pedestal,  and  it  most  resembles 
Punch  mounted  on  Balaam's  ass — at  least  so  it  has 
been  caricatured  by  the  witty  Charivari  of  London, 
to  whose  pages  it  properly  belongs.  On  the  whole, 
if  I  am  not  mistaken  —  and  the  few  pieces  of 
statuary  in  London  appear  to  confirm  this  view — 
the  English  work  with  good  taste  and  real  success 
in  second-rate  styles.  In  painting  they  excel  in 
water-colours,  either  cabinet-pictures  or  portraits  ; 
in  engraving,  in  mezzotinto,  copperplate,  or  the 
Keepsake ;  in  sculpture,  in  bust  portraits.  In  the 
true  national  museum  of  sculpture,  Westminster 
Abbey,  we  shall  find  this  last  assertion  justified. 

In  the  chapel  of  Henry  VII.,  the  largest  and 
most  profusely  decorated  in  the  old  monastery  of 
the  west,  where  the  knights  of  the  Bath  are  now 
installed,  we  find  the   best  and   earliest   piece   of 


ENGLISH  SCULPTURE.  273 

sculpture  which  England  can  pride  herself  on  pos- 
sessing— the  tomb  of  the  founder  of  the  chapel. 
It  is  the  work  of  the  celebrated  Florentine,  Pietro 
Torregiano,  whose  tragic  history  we  have  already 
related.  On  the  tomb,  which  is  of  black  basalt, 
covered  with  various  ornaments  and  surrounded  by 
a  rich  and  massive  chantry  of  cast  brass,  recline 
the  effigies  of  Henry  VII.  and  his  queen,  Elizabeth. 
We  will  not  attempt  to  review  thoroughly  the 
other  ten  or  twelve  chapels  of  the  abbey,  but 
briefly  notice  the  principal  tombs,  not  according  to 
their  positions,  but  according  to  the  rank  occupied 
in  the  world  by  the  illustrious  dead  whose  ashes 
they  cover.  First,  then,  we  will  complete  the  list  of 
royal  personages.  Here  we  find  the  great  Eliza- 
beth, whose  marble  statue  immortalises  the  round 
eyes  and  hooked  nose,  the  cold,  imperious,  and 
haughty  manner  characteristic  of  the  maiden 
queen  ;  Mary  Stuart,  more  beautiful,  more 
lovable,  and  more  frail ;  Edward  V.  and  his 
brother  Richard,  both  assassinated;  Charles  II., 
the  restored  monarch,  not  far  from  the  instrument 
of  his  restoration.  General  Monk  ;  William  III., 
called  to  the  throne  by  the  glorious  Revolution  ; 
his  wife,  Mary  ;  Queen  Anne  ;  and,  lastly,  George 
II.,  who  prepared  his  own  grave  in  the  vault  of 
Henry  VI  I. 's  chapel. 

T 


274  ENGLISH  SCULPTURE. 

Westminster,  however,  is  not  only  the  St.  Denis 
of  England,  it  is  also  the  Pantheon.  All  the  men 
who  have  rendered  great  services  to  their  country, 
or  whose  works  have  made  them  illustrious,  share 
the  honour  and  the  fame  of  those  whom  accident 
or  birth  called  to  the  throne.  There  are  but  few 
warriors  amongst  them  ;  we  look  in  vain  for  the 
Black  Prince,  Talbot,  Marlborough — Nelson  rests 
in  St.  Paul's,  almost  alone.  Westminster  contains 
more  simple  officers  who  died  in  action  than  great 
naval  or  military  commanders.  Near  the  gorgeous 
monument  to  Captain  James  Cornewall,  with  its 
elegant  bas-relief  sea-piece  beneath  a  pyramid 
shaded  by  palms,  rest  General  Wolfe,  Field- 
marshal  Lord  Ligonier,  and  Major  Andre,*  with 
one  foreigner,  the  Corsican  chief  Pasquale  de 
Paoli,  who  was  hospitably  received  by  the  English 
even  in  their  national  temple. 

The  statesmen,  who  were  more  numerous  in 
England,  are  also  better  represented  in  the  abbey. 
I  shall  not  enumerate  the  eminent  politicians  of  the 
Tudors  and  Stuarts,  but  pass  on  to  those  of  our 
own  age  :  Lord  Stanhope  ;  Lord  Mansfield,  whose 
magnificent   mausoleum   was    erected    in    1805    by 

*  This  Major  Andre  was  unjustly  shot  as  a  spy  by  the  Americanr., 
on  October  2nd,  1780.  A  monument  was  erected  to  him  in  the 
Abbey,  but  he  was  not  buried  there,  as  M.  Viardot  implies. — (Tr.) 


ENGLISH  SCULPTURE.  275 

Fiaxman,  the  great  illustrator  of  Homer  and 
Dante  ;  the  earl  of  Chatham,  father  of  Pitt  ;  the 
two  illustrious  rivals,  William  Pitt  and  Charles 
Fox ;  the  orator  Grattan  ;  and,  lastly,  George 
Canning,  the  successor  of  Fox  and  the  forerunner 
of  Robert  Peel. 

Amongst  these  numerous  sepulchral  monuments 
to  men  little  known  beyond  the  Channel,  there  are 
some  commemorating  names  of  more  European 
celebrity,  before  which  the  foreigner  pauses  with 
greater  respect.  Such  are  Camden,  the  learned 
antiquary ;  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller,  who  was  court 
painter  under  five  kings,  from  Charles  II.  to  George 
I.,  and  who  filled  the  mansions  of  Great  Britain 
with  historic  portraits  ;*  the  chemist,  Sir  Humphry 
Davy,  to  whom  trade  and  philanthropy  owe  as 
much  as  science  ;  James  Watt,  who  did  not,  it  is 
true,  invent  steam,  but  who  controlled  its  power 
and  regulated  its  use  ;  William  Wilberforce,  a  good 
man  and  true  philanthropist,  who  ought  not  to  be 
separated  from  Howard,  who  rests  in  St.  Paul's  ; 
and,   lastly,  the    great    Sir    Isaac    Newton,    whose 

*  More  modem  painters,  such  as  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  Benjamin 
West,  Sir  Thomas  Lawrence,  and  David  Wilkie,  are  buried  in  the 
vaults  of  St.  Paul's.  In  the  centre  of  the  same  building  rests  also 
the  architect  who  designed  it,  under  a  plain  slab  it  is  true,  but  with 
the  following  magnificent  sentence  engraved  upon  it  :  ^'  Si  rei/uiris 
tnonununtum,  circums/>ki.^' 


276  ENGLISH  SCULPTUBE. 

tomb,  like  the  sanctuary  of  God,  should  be,  not  in  a 
building,  not  in  a  country,  but  in  the  universe,  the 
laws  of  which  he  recognised  and  laid  down. 

On  examining  his  statue,  which  is  a  fine  work  by 
Scheemakers,  we  are  struck  by  his  resemblance  to 
another  great  worker  of  wide  views  —  Michael 
Angelo.  Newton  was  a  handsomer  man,  certainly, 
for  his  nose  was  not  broken  in  his  youth  by  a 
choleric  rival  ;  his  face,  too,  is  gentler  and  more 
thoughtful  ;  but  for  all  that,  I  repeat,  the  resem- 
blance is  striking  in  the  general  outline  of  the  head, 
in  the  lines  of  the  face,  in  the  features,  in  the  entire 
appearance.  Beneath  the  statue  of  Newton  are 
inscribed  the  true  and  beautiful  words,  Sibi gratu- 
lenUir  nwrtales  talc  taiiUimque  extitisse  ;*  and 
lower  down,  Hiimani  generis  decus.^ 

The  part  of  the  Pajitheon  of  England  which 
I  found  most  delightful  and  suggestive  was  the 
south  transept,  or  Poets'  Corner.  Before  the 
effigies  of  kings  or  politicians  we  experience  a  mere 
cold  curiosity  ;  but  in  this  silent  funereal  academy, 
amongst  the  men  whose  memory  will  live  for  ever, 
and  who  still  speak  to  us  in  their  works,  heart  and 
mind  alike  burn  within  us  ;  we  seem  to  be  in  the 
actual  presence    of   the    imposing    assembly,   and 

*  Lei  mortals  rejoice  that  such  a  great  genius  otice  existed. 
t  Honour  of  the  human  rcue. 


ENGLISH  SCULPTURE.  211 

under  the  scrutiny  of  these  acknowledged  masters, 
whom  we  admire,  reverence,  and  love.  There,  in  a 
narrow  space,  are  collected  nearly  all  the  writers 
who  have  rendered  the  rich  and  powerful  literature 
of  England  illustrious,  and  with  whom  we  are 
familiar  through  the  lab')urs  of  our  translators  and 
critics  at  least:  old  Ben  Joason,  Chaucer,  called 
the  Eiinius  of  England,  Spenser,  William  Shake- 
spear,  John  Milton,  Thomas  Gray,  Butler,  \V.  Con- 
greve.  Mason,  Gay,  Wyatt,  Isaac  Casaubon,  Dryden, 
Pope,  Addison,  Oliver  Goldsmith,  Rowe,  Thomson, 
Sheridan.  We  regret  the  absence  of  Swift,  Field- 
ing, Sterne,  Hume,  and  Richardson  ;  but  of  the 
greatest  authors  four  only  are  missing,  two  belong- 
ing to  past  ages  and  two  to  modern  times.  The 
former  are  Roger  Bacon,  the  learned  friar,  and 
Francis  Bacon,  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  Great 
Britain,  and  the  still  greater  author  of  the  Instau- 
ratio  Magna;  and  the  latter,  Byron  and  Walter 
Scott.  I  believe  that  a  place  is  reserved  for 
Macaulay.* 

The  sepulchre  of  the  illustrious  author  oi  Para- 
dise Lost  is  not  worthv  of  him  ;  the  little  tomb 
quite  close  to  the  door  is  shabby  for  so  great 
a   name.     Can     it   be    that   the   reputation    of   the 

*  Macaulay's  place  is  now  tilled,  and  tl  e  names  of  I'liaekeray  and 
Charles  Dickens  must  be  added  to  this  list  of  illustrious  authors. — Tr. 


278  ENGLISH  SCULPTURE. 

republican  pamphleteer  has  injured  that  of  the 
Scriptural  poet  ?  The  great  Shakespear  is  more 
suitably  treated.  His  tomb  is  a  remarkable  work 
by  Scheemakers,  and  he  is  represented  at  full  length 
on  a  pedestal  decorated  with  symbols  and  allegorical 
figures.  There  is  a  natural  nobility  about  this  statue, 
without  any  theatrical  stiffness,  but  the  face  appears 
to  me  too  round,  too  full,  too  smooth.  We  could 
wish  the  immortal  dramatic  poet  to  have  the  long, 
grave,  and  thoughtful  countenance  of  his  engraved 
portraits.  At  Shakespear's  feet,  beneath  a  simple 
slab  of  black  marble,  lies  Sheridan,  who  might 
have  had  a  statue  amongst  those  of  the  statesmen, 
had  he  not  preferred  to  remain  with  the  authors  ; 
and  opposite,  a  man  who  wrote  little,  but  was  a 
comedian,  and  doubtless  a  greater  comedian  than 
Shakespear — David  Garrick.  His  presence  here 
might  be  taken  as  a  proof  of  the  tolerance  of  English 
churchmen,  so  often  denied,  did  we  not  remember 
that  the  choir  alone  of  the  old  Roman  Catholic 
church  is  consecrated  to  the  dominant  form  of 
worship,  whilst  the  rest  is  but  a  secular  building. 

Amongst  the  warriors  we  found  the  Corsican 
Paoli,  amongst  the  men  of  letters  the  Swiss 
Casaubon,  and  now,  in  the  Poets'  Corner,  we  meet 
with  another  foreigner,  a  great  poet,  truly,  although 
he    did    not  write    in   English,   or    in    any  spoken 


ENGLISH  SCULPTURE.  279 

tongue,  but  in  that  universal  language  called 
music  :  we  refer  to  the  Saxon,  George  Frederick 
Handel.  Grateful  to  this  fine  genius,  the  English 
retain  their  reverence  for  his  name  and  works, 
many  of  them  innocently  imagining,  on  account  of 
his  long  residence  and  death  in  London,  that  he 
was  actually  their  countryman.  Handel's  monu- 
ment, by  Roubiliac,  is  fantastical  and  theatrical. 
In  a  kind  of  niche,  or  marble  cabinet,  the  German 
composer  stands  beside  a  table,  on  which  are  spread 
musical  books  and  instruments,  amongst  others  a 
horn,  doubtless  to  indicate  that  he  introduced  the 
brass  instruments  of  his  time  into  the  orchestra. 
The  greatest  fault  of  the  statue  is,  I  think, 
the  lowness  of  the  forehead  ;  the  sculptor  has  not 
done  justice  to  the  massive  head  of  his  model  ;  and 
I  am  justified  in  this  criticism,  not  because  I  am 
a  phrenologist,  but  because  I  have  seen  an  authentic 
portrait  of  Handel,  in  which  the  vivacity  of  his 
somewhat  whimsical  humour,  the  energy  of  his 
determined  disposition,  and  the  fire  of  his  prolific 
creative  genius  are  all  clearly  rendered. 

If,  now,  instead  of  noticing  the  fame  of  the 
celebrities  admitted  to  Westminster  Abbey,  we 
were  to  consider  the  tombs  as  v.'orks  of  art  only, 
we  should  have  little  to  say.  Some  of  them  are 
remarkable   far  size  rather  than  grandeur,  for  odd 


280  ENGLISH  SCULPTURE. 

fancies  rather  than  true  originality.  The  best  are 
the  simplest,  such  as  statues  and  busts,  but  none  of 
them  appear  to  us  to  bear  comparison  with  the  tombs 
of  the  Medici  at  Florence,  of  Paul  III.  or  Rezzo- 
nico  at  Rome,  of  Turenne  at  Paris,  or  of  Marshal 
Saxe  at  Strasburg.  We  have  already  mentioned 
the  principal  monuments  :  of  the  ancient,  that  of 
Henry  VII.  by  Torregiano  ;  of  the  modern,  those 
of  Lord  Mansfield,  by  Flaxman,  of  Captain  Corne- 
wall,  of  Newton,  and  of  Shakespear  by  Schee- 
makers  ;  and  to  them  we  must  add  the  statue  of 
Watt  by  Chantrey,  which  is  said  to  be  a  perfect 
likeness.  There  are,  however,  two  other  tombs, 
both  of  women,  which  deserve  mention,  if  only  on 
account  of  the  fame  which  they  enjoy.  One,  that 
of  Elizabeth  Warren,  represents  a  young  girl,  half 
nude,  in  the  semi-recumbent  position  of  the  Mag- 
dalene of  Canova.*  This  figure  appears  to  me 
well  studied,  happily  rendered,  but  what  is  perhaps 
most  admired  is  the  imitation  in  marble  of  a  g-ar- 
ment  of  coarse  cloth,  of  which  the  threads  may 
be  counted — a  childish  fancy,  reminding  us  of  the 
Christ  beneath  the  sJirond  and  the  Fish  in  the  net  in 

*  This  figure  is  not  intended  to  represent  Elizabeth  Warren 
herself,  as  the  text  implies,  but  a  houseless  wanderer,  with  an  infant 
in  her  arms.  Elizabeth  Warren  was  the  widow  of  the  Right  Rev. 
John  WaiTcn,  D.D.,  Lord  Bishop  of  Bangor,  and  was  remarkable 
for  her  benevolence.-   (Trans.) 


ENGLISH  SCULPTUBE.  281 

the  San  Severe  Chapel  at  Naples.  As  for  the  other 
tomb,  I  failed  to  discover  either  the  name  of  the 
sculptor  or  that  of  the  person  to  whom  it  is  dedi- 
cated, for  the  guides  at  Westminster  hurry  the 
visitor  past  the  tombs,  much  as  Sancho  Panza's 
doctor  did  the  dishes  at  the  governor's  table.  All 
that  I  could  make  out  was  that  it  had  something 
to  do  with  a  lady  who  was  shut  up  so  long  in  a 
dungeon  that  she  died  on  again  seeing  the  day- 
light, when  her  husband  came  to  rescue  her.  This 
scene  is  represented  on  the  upper  part  of  the  monu- 
ment ;  beneath,  lean  Death,  coming  through  the 
half-open  door,  turns  back  and  touches  the  expiring 
captive  with  his  scythe.*  It  is  a  strange,  theatrical, 
and  pretentious  composition,   in  the  style    of  the 

*  We  presume  that  M.  Viardot  alludes  to  a  monument  to  the 
memory  of  Joseph  Gascoigne  Nightingale  and  his  wife,  in  the  chapel 
of  St.  John,  St.  Michael,  and  St.  Andrew,  by  Roubiliac,  described 
in  the  verger's  guide-book  in  the  following  words:  "The  lady  is 
represented  expiring  in  the  arms  of  her  husband  ;  beneath,  slily 
creeping  from  n  tomb,  the  King  of  Terrors  presents  his  grim  visage, 
pointing  his  unerring  dart  to  the  dying  figure,  at  which  sight  the 
husband,  suddenly  struck  with  astonishment,  horror,  and  despair, 
seems  to  cla^p  her  to  his  bosom  to  defend  her  from  the  fatal  stroke. 
Inscription  : — Here  rest  the  ashes  of  Joseph  Gascoigne  Nightingale, 
of  Mamhead,  in  the  county  of  Devon,  Esq.,  who  died  July  20,  1752, 
aged  56,  and  of  I.ady  Elizabeth,  his  wife  ;  daughter,  and  co-heiress 
of  Washington,  Earl  Ferrers,  who  died  August  17,  1734,  aged 
twenty-seven.  Their  only  son,  Washington  Gascoigne  Nightingale, 
Esq.,  in  memory  of  tiieir  virtues,  did  by  his  last  will  order  this 
monument  to  be  erected."' — (Trans.) 


282  EXGLISn  SCULPTUJiE. 

mausoleum  of  Maria  Christina  of  Austria,  erected 
by  Canova  in  the  church  of  the  Augustines  at 
Vienna  ;  but  we  must  acknowledge  that  some  of 
the  details  are  very  finely  executed.  The  skeleton 
of  Death,  for  instance,  is  powerfully  rendered  and 
the  action  is  good.  When  the  shades  of  night 
begin  to  gather  in  the  spacious  aisles  it  must  form 
an  appalling  apparition. 

English  sculpture  sent  no  choice  work  to  the 
Universal  Exhibition,  and  only  gained  one  insigni- 
ficant distinction.  An  Italian  artist,  educated  in 
France,  Baron  Marochetti,  long  held  high  and 
undisputed  rank  as  a  sculptor  in  London,  but 
death  has  lately  removed  him  from  the  country  of 
his  adoption. 


288 


CHAPTER    VII. 

FRENCH   SCULPTURE. 

WE  have  already  remarked  that  even  in  Italy, 
throughout  the  true  Middle  Age  (from  the 
fourth  to  the  eleventh  centuries),  there  was  a  long 
pause,  during  which  the  arts  were  almost  entirely 
in  abeyance.  In  Gaul,  which  became  France 
under  Clovis,  bad  taste  and  ignorance  were  so 
universal,  mechanical  and  intellectual  power  so  en- 
tirely wanting,  that,  as  we  are  told  by  M.  Menard, 
Pepin  the  Short,  Charlemagne,  and  Louis  le  Debon- 
naire  used  antique  engraved  stones  for  seals,  and 
signed  the  decrees  of  their  reigns  with  the  impres- 
sion of  a  Jupiter,  a  Cupid,  or  a  Marcus  Aurelius. 

It  was  during  the  Crusades,  at  Constantinople 
and  Antioch,  that  eastern  and  western  art  were 
first  brought  into  contact,  and  the  result  was  a 
kind  of  faint  revival  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  ancient 


284  FRENCH  SCULP  TUBE. 

Grecian  art  ;  for  it  may  be  said  that  the  Byzantine 
style  was  the  old  Grecian,  coloured  and  modified 
by  the  ideas  of  the  East,  of  Persia  especially,  by 
those  arts  which  subsequently  became  Arab : 
architecture  and  decoration. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  when 
the  terrible  year  looo  had  passed  away,  and  belief 
in  the  world's  continued  existence  was  restored,  the 
art  of  sculpture  and  that  of  staining  glass  appeared 
together  in  France.  The  influence  of  the  Crusades 
was  naturally  seen  in  religious  buildings,  and  first 
of  all  in  the  imitation  of  Byzantine  paintings. 
According  to  M.  Viollet-le-Duc,  this  imitation  is 
most  evident  in  the  sculptures  belonging  to  the 
remote  age  of  St.  Bernard,  in  the  abbey  church  of 
Vezelai  in  Burgundy,  in  which  he  preached  the 
second  crusade.  Little  by  little,  however,  Gothic 
art  freed  itself  from  the  tutelage  to  which  it  owed 
its  birth.  The  Byzantine  Christ,  blessing  and 
judging  men,  soon  became  no  more  than  the 
Crucified ;  the  glorified  Virgin,  crushing  the  serpent, 
and  resting  her  foot  on  the  crescent  of  the  moon, 
was  transformed  into  the  Madonna,  mother  of  the 
Holy  Child. 

The  monks  of  Cluny,  whose  order  was  founded 
by  St.  Bernon  as  early  as  the  end  of  the  ninth 
century,   were    not    only    better  scholars,   but  also 


FEElJdH  SCULPTURE.  285 

better  artists  than  those  of  other  institutions. 
Stonemasons  worked  under  the  abbots  or  friars  of 
this  order  who  had  studied  architecture,  and  the  more 
skilful  of  these  artisans  became  carvers  of  images, 
and  were  intrusted  with  the  most  important  and 
delicate  works.  They  made  the  statues,  or  the  heads 
and  hands  of  the  statues  ;  but  they  did  not  give 
their  names — there  was  no  Pheidias,  no  Praxiteles, 
amongst  them.  "  Their  figures,"  says  M.  Taine, 
"  are  destitute  of  beauty,  thin,  attenuated,  mortified, 
and  suffering  ;  .  .  .  motionless  in  expectation  or 
rapture,  they  are  too  frail  and  impassioned  to  live, 
they  are  already  promised  to  heaven."  And  yet 
strict  judges  found  fault  with  them.  Gregory  VII. 
and  St.  Bernard  condemned  the  license  indulged 
in  by  the  nascent  art.  They  were  hostile  to  all 
beauty,  to  all  shape.  \'irtuous,  not  beautiful 
saints  were  required,  with  nothing  about  them  to 
distract  the  eye  or  the  mind,  or  to  excite  earthly 
love.  Shoulders  and  hips  were  not  to  be  repre- 
sented, action  was  forbidden,  the  hands  must  be 
folded  in  the  attitude  of  prayer  and  meditation. 

In  these  images,  whether  of  the  elect  or  the 
condemned,  of  angels  or  of  devils,  expression  was 
generally  obtained  by  means  of  contortions  and 
grimaces.  "  The  whole  period  called  Gothic,"  says 
M.   Menard,   "was  divided    between    two    equally 


286  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

vicious  extremes — absolute  rigidity  or  degrading 
mannerism." 

We  must  here  remark  that  the  Greeks  aspired 
not  only  to  the  true  and  the  beautiful,  but  also  to 
right  balance  in  the  true  and  beautiful.  Hence 
the  comparative  calm  of  their  statues,  the  absence 
of  all  forced  or  painful  expression,  and  even,  if  you 
will,  of  tenderness.  The  Christians,  on  the  contrary, 
in  their  endeavour  to  supply  the  want  of  beauty — 
condemned  by  their  creed — by  power  of  expression, 
naturally  fell  into  extremes  ;  and  this  fault,  con- 
tracted in  the  Middle  Ages,  characterised  Christian 
art  until  the  time  of  Michael  Angelo,  of  Bernini,  of 
Puget,  and  exists  still  in  our  own  day,  under  the 
name  of  mannerism. 

However,  taking  into  account  the  ideas  univer- 
sally entertained  at  this  time,  with  regard  to  the 
impossibility  of  representing  the  nude,  the  morti- 
fication of  the  flesh,  and  the  superiority  of  ascetic 
piety  over  mobile  beauty,  we  must  acknowledge  that 
the  lay  artists  of  the  Middle  Ages  at  least,  who  had 
more  independence  and  individuality  of  character 
than  their  religious  brethren,  did  attain  to  a  certain 
excellence,  a  certain  ideal,  and  in  many  cases  even  to 
true  and  powerful  expression.  Beauty  certainly  was 
wanting  ;  but,  in  the  Vv-ords  of  M.  Viollet-le-Duc, 
"  the   .style  and   the  thought  were  never  at  fault." 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  287 

The  artists  were  in  perfect  accord  with  the  ideas  of 
their  time.     Art  was  indeed  a  reflection  of  society. 

At  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  through- 
out the  whole  of  the  thirteenth,  sculpture  became 
more  and  more  secular.  It  was  no  longer  under 
the  direction  of  the  monks,  but  of  the  bishops, 
and  the  secular  clergy  proved  themselves  better 
informed  and  more  independent  than  the  professed. 
The  bishops,  less  completely  subject  to  the  Pope 
than  the  monastic  body,  resembled  the  feudal  lords 
under  the  monarchy  before  the  latter  acquired  all 
its  centralised  authority.  The  result  of  this  in  art 
was  the  greater  variety  of  subjects  represented, 
together  with  increased  freedom  in  their  treatment 
from  the  thraldom  of  tradition.  False  and  childish 
legends  were  abandoned  for  the  all  but  historical 
facts  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

The  happy  result  of  this  new  state  of  things  was 
the  production  of  some  fine  pieces  of  statuary, 
including  groups,  in  which  we  already  notice  a 
skilful  arrangement  of  lines,  a  felicitous  choice  of 
attitudes,  with  pure  and  devout  expression.  This 
era  resembles  that  of  the  /Eginetans  in  the  history 
of  Grecian  art.  The  time  of  crude  efforts  was  past, 
the  true  renaissance  was  dawning ;  the  age  of  full 
liberty  to  the  artist.  Indeed,  we  recognise  in  this 
progress    of    art    the    same    love   of  independence 


288  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

which,  in  the  body  poHtic,  led  to  the  institution  of 
communes.  And  this  independence  was  often 
carried  to  audacity.  "  The  works  of  this  time," 
says  M.  Viollet-le-Duc,  "  show  a  marked  demo- 
cratic tendency  ;  a  hatred  of  oppression,  which  was 
then  spreading  everywhere  ;  and,  which  is  a  nobler 
sentiment,  and  renders  them  worthy  of  the  name  of 
art,  the  liberation  of  the  intellect  from  feudal  and 
priestly  bondage." 

The  artists  of  this  time  were  thoroughly  well 
acquainted  with  the  laws  of  proportion  in  per- 
spective. Their  statues,  groups,  high  and  low 
reliefs,  are  suited  to  the  position  they  occupy ; 
faulty  if  seen  close,  correct  at  a  distance,  they  are 
almost  always  intended  to  be  looked  at  from  below. 
Their  authors  were  also  conversant  with  the  laws  of 
light ;  which  was  the  more  necessary,  as  many 
sculptures  of  the  eleventh  to  the  fourteenth  cen- 
turies are  coloured.  We  may  add  that  the  groups, 
statues,  and  bas-reliefs  were  adapted  to  the  amount 
of  light  which  would  fall  upon  them  ;  in  fact,  at 
that  time,  sculpture  was  still  an  adjunct,  the  prin- 
cipal decoration  of  architecture.  In  speaking  of 
the  monuments  of  this  epoch  we  can  neithci 
separate  the  sculpture  from  the  architecture,  nor 
the  architecture  from  the  sculpture. 

Like    the    Mahommedan    mosques,   a    Christian 


FliENCH  SCULPTURE.  289 

cathedral  was  intended  to  be  a  representation  of 
the  world,  a  cosmos.  But  after  the  downfall  of  the 
iconoclasts,  artists  were  free  to  represent  all  living 
things,  and  the  cathedral  became  a  more  complete 
picture  of  the  universe.  We  are  therefore  not 
surprised  to  meet  with  an  infinite  variety  of 
ornaments  ;  a  stone  fiora,  that  is  to  say,  plants 
freely  imitated  with  the  chisel  ;  a  fauna,  that  is, 
animals  of  all  sorts,  mostly  fabulous  or  chimerical, 
and  nearly  always  symbolical,  such  as  the  phoenix, 
the  griffin,  the  harpy,  the  basilisk,  the  salamander  ; 
together  with  men,  saints,  demons,  angels,  and 
gods.  It  was  in  accordance  with  ideas  of  this  kind 
that  the  great  cathedrals  were  constructed  and 
decorated  at  Rheims,  Chartres,  Amiens,  Laon,  Sens, 
Paris,  and  in  the  central  district  formerly  known  as 
the  Isle  of  France,  which  M.  Viollet-le-Duc  justly 
calls  the  "  Attica  of  the  Middle  Ages." 

After  these  general  remarks,  we  will  proceed  to 
notice  those  pieces  of  sculpture  best  known  to 
fame,  which  are  mostly  by  artists  whose  originality 
has  rescued  their  names  from  oblivion  ;  who  were 
artists  by  nature  as  well  as  by  education,  combining 
true  genius  with  great  delicacy  and  refinement. 
Such  were,  in  the  fourth  century,  Jean  Ravi  and 
his  nephew,  Jean  Bouteiller,  who,  after  the  mis- 
fortunes  of  the   reign  of  Charles  VI.,  and  the  ex- 

U 


290  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

pulsion  of  the  English,  worked  together  at  a  Life 
of  the  Virgin,  in  bas-relief,  round  the  cloister  of 
Notre-Dame  at  Paris  ;  the  unknown  author  of  the 
fine  tomb  erected  in  the  cloister  St.  Victor,  by 
Bishop  Guillaume  of  Paris,  to  his  cook  Jacques  ; 
Hennequin  de  la  Croix,  author  of  the  magnificent 
mausoleum,  dedicated  by  Charles  V.,  Charles  le 
Sage,  to  his  fool,  Thevenin  de  St.  Legier ;  Conrad 
Meyt  and  Andre  Colomban,  who  executed  the 
tomb  of  Philibert  le  Beau,  in  the  church  of  Brou  ; 
and  lastly,  Michel  Colomb,  or  Michault  Colomb 
(143 1  to  1 5 14),  author  of  the  monument  at  Nantes 
to  Francois  II.  due  de  Bretagne  (duke  of  Brittany) 
and  his  wife  Marguerite  de  Foix.  He  it  is  who  has 
the  honour  of  giving  his  name  to  the  first  of  the 
rooms  dedicated  to  the  Renaissance  in  the  Museum 
of  the  Louvre.  In  the  marble  bas-relief  attributed 
to  him  he  has  introduced  the  Struggle  between 
St.  George  and  the  Dragon,  in  nearly  high  relief, 
but  in  reduced  proportions.  The  delicacy  of  work- 
manship and  the  boldness  of  style  in  the  figures  of 
the  mail-clad  Christian  Perseus  on  horseback,  the 
scaly  monster  pierced  by  the  lance,  and  the  Princess 
Theodelinda*  kneeling  in  the  distance,  would  have 
done  honour  to  Italy  herself  at  this  age.  Whilst 
Colomb  was  at  work  on  this  bas-relief  and  other 
*  (Qutere.     S.  Saba?— Tr.) 


FBENCH  SCULPTURE.  291 

ornaments  for  the  Chateau  de  Gaillon,  built  by 
Cardinal  Amboise,  Jean  Juste  of  Tours  was  making 
a  name  by  his  tomb  of  Louis  XII.,  and  Jean 
Texier  by  the  forty-one  groups  or  bas-reliefs  of  the 
cathedral  of  Chartres  ;  the  Marriage  of  the  Virgin, 
the  Visitation,  the  Circumcision,  the  Massacre  of  the 
Innocents,  etc.  "It  is  not  Perugino  whom  we 
recognise  here,"  exclaims  Emeric  David,  "  it  is 
Raphael  himself,  as  seen  in  the  loggie  of  the 
Vatican."  Juste  and  Texier  both  lived  earlier  than 
the  Italians  of  Fontainebleau. 

In  the  same  room,  near  an  alabaster  statue  of 
Louis  XII.,  in  the  costume  of  a  Roman  emperor, 
by  a  Milanese  sculptor,  Demugiano,  are  two  other 
entirely  French  monuments.  One  is  the  tomb  of 
the  celebrated  friend  of  Louis  XI.  and  Charles  VIII., 
the  historian,  Philippe  de  Comines,  who  died  in 
1509,  and  of  his  wife,  Helene  de  Chambres,  who 
followed  him  in  1531.  The  figures,  of  coloured 
stone,  are  only  half  length,  in  the  attitude  of  prayer 
and  they  are  so  carefully  chiselled  and  painted 
as  to  be  true  portraits  in  full  relief  The  other 
monument  consists  of  a  pair  of  separate  tombs,  ol 
Louis  Poucher,  secretary  to  the  king,  who  died  hi 
1 52 1,  and  of  his  wife,  Roberte  Legendre,  whose 
death  took  place  a  year  later.  According  to 
custom,  each  figure   lies  on   its  back,   with    folded 


292  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

hands  and  closed  eyes  ;  the  man,  in  warlike 
costume,  rests  his  feet  on  a  lion  ;  the  woman,  in  a 
close-fitting  cap  and  flowing  robe,  with  no  ornament 
but  a  long  rosary,  uses  a  dog  as  a  footstool.  All 
these  details  are  common  even  to  triteness,  the 
material,  mere  lias  limestone,  is  not  valuable,  nor 
do  the  insignificant  names  of  the  persons  com- 
memorated justify  the  exceptional  measures  taken 
to  preserve  their  tombs  from  oblivion.  Do  we  even 
know  the  name  of  the  sculptor  of  these  images  } 
No ;  and  the  dates  prevent  us  from  attributing 
them  to  Michault  Columb,  who  died  many  years 
before  these  worthies.  Why  then  were  their 
monuments  brought  from  the  church  of  St.  Ger- 
main I'Auxerrois  to  the  Museum  of  the  Louvre  .? 
Because  their  unknown  author  has  produced  a 
double  miasterpiece,  because  the  exquisite  sim- 
plicity of  these  memorial  figures  (of  the  woman 
especially)  is  such,  that  they  may  be  considered 
models  of  French  art  before  it  was  transformed 
by  Italian  influence.  They  are  fortunately  well 
preserved  and  uninjured. 

Benvenuto  Cellini  was  invited  to  France  by 
Francis  I.  at  the  same  tinie  as  Leonardo  da  Vinci, 
Andrea  del  Sarto,  Rosso,  and  Primaticcio.  We 
have  already  noticed  his  NyjupJi  of  Fontamebleau 
in   our  chapter  on   Italian   sculpture ;    it   is   in   the 


FRENOH  SCULPTURE.  293 

same  room  in  the  Louvre  as  Michael  Angelo's 
Captives.  We  may  also  mention  a  statue  of 
Friendship,  by  a  certain  Pietro  Paolo  Olivieri. 
She  half  unbares  her  heart  with  one  hand,  a  stranee 
and  far  from  pleasing  fancy,  intended  to  typify  the 
warmth  and  purity  of  her  feelings.  But  does  not 
good  taste  condemn  the  use  of  physical  symbols  to 
represent  moral  sentiments  ?  Is  not  expression  the 
only  legitimate  means  at  the  artist's  command  for  the 
embodiment  of  his  thought  ?  To  attain  to  this  is 
the  chief  difficulty,  but  also  the  chief  triumph  of  art. 
At  the  same  time  that  the  Italians  introduced 
the  grand  style  into  France,  a  Frenchman  took 
rank  amongst  the  first  sculptors  of  Italy.  This  was 
Jean  de  Bologne,  born  at  D  :iuai  in  1524.  He 
lived  at  Florence,  where  he  was  called  Giam- 
Bologna  ;  but  we  have  as-  good  a  right  to  class 
him  amongst  French  sculptors  as  we  have  to  con- 
sider Claude  and  Poussin  French  painters.  It  was 
probably  a  whim  of  the  gloomy  Michael  Angelo 
which  led  to  his  becoming  a  great  artist.  It  is  said 
that  the  young  Jean  de  Bologne,  shortly  after 
his  arrival  in  Italy,  presented  the  old  P^lorentine 
with  a  very  finely-finished  plaster-work.  Michael 
Angelo  broke  it  with  a  blow  of  his  stick,  and  ex- 
claimed :  "  Young  man,  learn  to  use  the  chisel 
before  finishing."     Jean  de  Bologne  left   his  cele- 


294 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 


brated  bronze  group  of  the  Kape  of  a  Sabine  in  the 
Palazzo  Vecckio,  and  several  statuettes  in  the 
museum  Degl'  Uffizi ;  am.ongst  others,  a  Jimo,  a 
Venus,    an   Apollo,   a    Vulcan,    and    the    Alerairy, 


Fig.  55. — The  Flying  Mercury. 

known  everywhere  as  that  of  Giam-Bologna.  This 
well-known  Mercury,  which  has  been  often  copied, 
is  a  perfect  masterpiece  of  lightness,  equilibrium, 
and  grace  ;  and  is  as  true  to  life   as  the  Dojicing 


FRENCH  SCULPTUIiE.  295 

FmiH  of  Pompeii,  and  the  finest  models  bequeathed 
to  us  by  Grecian  antiquity.  The  messenger  of  the 
gods  rests  one  foot  upon  a  zephyr,  and  is  about  to 
spring  into  the  air.  One  of  the  rooms  of  the 
Louvre  is  named  after  Jean  de  Bologne,  because 
for  a  long  time  the  principal  piece  of  sculpture 
which  it  contains,  the  nearly  colossal  group  of 
Mercury  carrying  off  Hebe,  was  attributed  to  him. 
It  is  indeed  a  magnificent  work,  but  we  think  it  a 
pity  that  it  was  not  turned  round  the  other  \vay, 
so  as  to  let  the  light  from  the  windows  fall  on  to 
the  figure  of  Mercury  instead  of  on  that  of  Hebe. 
The  latter  is,  in  fact,  somewhat  heavy,  stiff,  and 
awkward,  whilst  the  former  is  supple  and  agile, 
with  attitude  and  action  alike  well  rendered.  It 
has  been  ascribed  to  Jean  de  Bologne,  because  it 
resembles  the  wonderful  little  Flying  Mercury  of 
Florence.  But  it  is  now  called  Mercury  and  Psyche, 
and  attributed  to  a  certain  Adrian  of  Vries,  a 
Fleming  probably,  who  must  have  executed  this 
group  at  Prague  in  1593,  for  the  Emperor  Rudolph  1 1. 
We  believe  proofs  have  been  found  to  justify 
this  change  of  authorship.  This  room  should  then 
no  longer  be  named  after  Jean  de  Bologne,  but 
after  Michael  Angelo,  because  it  contains  his 
Captives. 

To    follow    the    progress    and    development    of 


296  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

French  art,  we  must  pass  without  pausing  from  the 
room  of  Michault  Colomb  to  that  of  Jean  Goujon 
(who  hved  about  1 530 — 1572).  We  shall  see  at 
a  glance  that  French  statuary  did  not,  like  painting, 
need  to  await  the  lessons  of  Italians,  but  that  the 
sculptors  of  the  Renaissance  took  their  inspiration 
from  the  image-makers  of  the  middle  age. 

A  few  choice  works,  by  a  great  artist  who  is  said 
to  have  been  lost  to  France  in  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  have  been  reverently  preserved. 
The  largest  and  most  celebrated  is  the  m^arble 
group  of  Diana,  made  for  the  old  but  still  beautiful 
lady  of  Anet,  Diana  of  Poitiers.  On  a  pedestal 
of  strange  shape,  rather  like  a  ship,  adorned  with 
crabs,  lobsters,  and  amorous  figures,  the  goddess  of 
the  chase,  in  a  semi-recumbent  position,  leans  upon 
a  stag  with  golden  antlers,  her  golden  bow  in  her 
hand,  her  two  guardian  dogs  beside  her.  This  half 
colossal  and  entirely  nude  figure,  with  the  hair 
dressed  in  the  style  of  the  day,  is  universally  looked 
upon  as  the  portrait  of  the  haughty  rival  of  the 
Duchesse  d'Etampes  and  of  Catherine  de  Medicis, 
who  ruled  France  until  the  death  of  Henry  II.  To 
complete  the  group,  two  noble  and  powerful-looking 
bronze  hunting  dogs,  with  drooping  ears,  have  been 
judiciously  placed  at  either  end.  These  fine  dogs 
are  those  described  and  represented  in  his  book  on 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  207 

hunting-  by  Jacques  du  Fouilloux,  huntsman  to 
Charles  IX.  They  may  be  quoted  as  models  of 
race  and  also  of  the  now  flourishhig  art  of  repre- 
senting animals.  The  only  other  work  in  full  relief 
by  Jean  Goujon  is  a  bust  portrait  of  Henry  II., 
framed  in  the  ornaments  of  a  chimney-piece 
modelled  by  Germain  Pilon. 

But  we  have  his  bas-reliefs,  in  which,  if  we  may 
so  express  ourselves,  he  was  more  truly  himself, 
and  excelled  all  rivals.  We  could  imagine  that 
the  great  artist  who  was  called  the  French  Pheidias 
and  the  Correggio  of  sculpture  had  really  been  able 
to  study  the  frieze  of  the  Parthenon,  so  much  do 
his  bas-reliefs  resemble  those  of  the  Pheidias  of 
Athens,  not  only  in  their  form,  for  they,  too, 
although  the  striking  effect  is  not  lessened,  are 
in  very  low  relief,  but  also  in  the  grandeur  of  style, 
the  correctness  of  drawing,  and  the  grace  and  truth 
of  the  attitudes.  M.  Alexandre  Lenoir  has  repro- 
duced Goujon's  Deposition  from  the  Cross  in  his 
Miiseum  of  French  Mojz?ime?zts,  and  there  is  no 
paradox  in  his  eulogium  :  "  The  Greeks  produced 
nothing  more  perfect,"  for  none  will  deny  its  justice. 
The  Deposition  from  the  Cross  is  now  in  the  Louvre, 
in  the  midst  of  the  four  Evangelists,  with  which  it  is 
worthy  to  rank.  Opposite  these  works  of  a  sacred 
style  are  others  which  are  profane.     These  are.  be- 


298 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 


tween  two  gracefully  recumbent  NympJis  of  the  Seine, 
a  fine  group  of  Tritons  and  Nereids  playing  on  the 
water.  "Whence  did  he  obtain  these  charming  forms," 


»wi(iia^iwWH"H;f^^Sftj'-i^i  HHt$?S(MinjKl<w{JujM>AloiO ^WU^UM^i^ ''flTJ^f^ 


r  ~( 

.  .    ,         ■i.<^»L'i>.i!.  Ill  r .  \^}}i"' 
■\ '  "     •  '''Frz.'jr~^_jii^z_  ■ "" 

I'^i'lli^liii''' '■'■■I'i'iii iiiiiilliiil.llmiilllil'li'li i.tr.inn'.iif'mi 


Fig.  56. — Fountain  of  the  Innocents. 

says  Michelet,  "  these  strange  unnatural  nymphs 
with  their  immensely  long  and  supple  figures .' 
Are  they  the  poplars  of  the  Fontaine-Belle-Eau,  the 
rushes   of  its  stream,  or  the  fantastic  branches  of 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  299 

the  vines  of  Thomery  which  have  clothed  the 
human  figure  ?"  (History  of  the  Refor.)  These 
various  bas-reHefs  are  in  Has  Hmestone,  as  well  as 
some  other  small  figures  of  nymphs  of  the  Seine 
and  of  the  Marne.  There  is  but  one  marble  bas- 
relief,  the  small,  but  beautiful  and  powerful  com- 
position, called  the  Azvaking,  which  seems  to  me  to 
be  rather  g.  symbolical  representation  of  the  Resur- 
rection. A  spirit  has  thrown  down  the  torch  of  life 
near  a  kind  of  nymph,  who  is  awakening  from 
death,  not  from  sleep.  The  allegory  is  as  clear  as 
an  allegory  can  be. 

The  sight  of  these  beautiful  works  makes  us 
deeply  regret  that  the  bas-reliefs  which  are  con- 
sidered Jean  Goujon's  masterpiece  are  not  also  in 
the  Louvre.  I  allude  to  those  of  the  Fontaine  des 
Innocents,  now  erected  in  the  vegetable  market.* 
As  it  was  very  sensibly  decided  to  take  the  best 
groups  or  statues  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.  from 
the  gardens  of  Versailles,  in  order  to  form  the 
museum   of  modern   sculpture,  as   these  works  are 

*  This  fountain  was  designed  by  Pierre  Lescot,  in  1550,  and  put 
up  at  the  corner  of  the  Rue  St.  Denis  and  the  Rue  Aux  Fers,  and 
Jean  Goujon  had  then  only  sculptured  the  ornaments  of  the  three 
visible  sides.  In  17S8,  the  architects  Poyet  and  Molinos  -rnioved 
it  to  the  centre  of  the  market,  and  ->  fourth  side  became  necessary 
to  make  it  complete.  Pajou  executed  an  imitation  of  the  sculptures 
of  Jean  Goujon. 


300  F BENCH  t^CULPTUBE. 

now  preserved  fiom  the  ravages  of  time,  some 
traces  of  which  were  ah-eady  visible,  and  as  they 
are  not  only  under  good  shelter,  but  also  in  a  place 
where  they  are  admired  by  better  judges  than  the 
few  stragglers  in  the  now  deserted  gardens,  why 
has  not  the  masterpiece  of  the  French  Renaissance 
of  the  sixteenth  century  had  the  honour  of  beincr 
included  in  our  national  treasury  ?  Th(;re  it  could 
be  better  kept,  its  exquisite  details  could  be  better 
seen,  it  would  be  an  object  of  study  and  admiration 
for  artists  and  amateurs  of  all  nations  ;  in  its  turn 
it  would  be  visited  by  those  better  able  to  appre- 
ciate it  than  the  dealers  in  cabbages  and  lettuces, 
who  would  feel  as  little  regret  for  its  loss  as  they 
do  pride  in  its  possession.  It  is  undecided  what 
shall  be  put  in  the  middle  of  the  square  court  of 
the  Louvre,  which  awaits.  Heaven  knows  what — 
some  equestrian  statue,  probably,  which  a  revolu- 
tion will  throw  down,  like  those  of  Henri  IV.  and 
Louis  XIV.  It  is  really  useless  to  go  to  the 
expense  of  bronze.  Let  the  Fontame  des  Innocents 
be  set  up  in  the  court  of  the  Louvre,  in  the  centre 
of  the  art  collections.  That  is  its  true  place,  and 
there  it  would  remain  as  long  as  Paris  is  Paris. 

It  is  customary  to  call  Jean  Goujon  the  restorer 
of  sculpture  in  France.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  dispute 
or  detract  from  his  glory.     I  would  gladly  own  him 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 


301 


to  be  the  creator  of  French  statuary.  But  this  title 
can  only  be  his  in  common  with  two  other  artists, 
Jean  Cousin  and  Germani  Pilon.  They  may,  indeed, 
have  preceded  him.     Although  we  do  not  know  the 


■"I>/Dl.,.J 


^'S-  57- — Tomb  of  Pierre  de  Breze. 

exact  date  of  the  birth  of  Jean  Goujon,  he  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  born  about  1530.  Jean  Cousin 
and  Germain  Pilon  were  therefore  his  seniors  by 
some  twenty  and  fifteen  years   respectively      The 


302  FRENCH  SCULVTURE. 

three  were  contemporaries,  rivals,  and  fellow- 
labourers  in  the  common  work  of  the  French 
Renaissance. 

The  fine  tomb  of  Pierre  de  Breze,  high  seneschal 
of  Normandy,  at  Rouen,  is  attributed  to  Jean 
Cousin  ;  but  in  the  Louvre  we  have  only  one 
piece  of  sculpture  and  one  painting  from  his  hand 
— both,  however,  equally  excellent.  The  former 
is  the  Mmisolejwi  of  Philippe  de  Chabot,  admiral  of 
France,  which  Cicognara  calls  the  masterpiece 
of  French  sculpture  in  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
semi-recumbent  figure  of  the  brave  and  noble 
admiral  leans  upon  the  helmet  with  the  left  arm. 
But  the  author  of  the  Last  Judgment  and  the  Art 
of  Designing  {U Art  de  Desseigner)  \vz.?>  so  entirely 
occupied  in  painting  glass  windows  and  writing 
precepts,  that  he  has  only  left  a  few  easel  paintings, 
and  still  fewer  sculptures.  Chabot's  mausoleum,  if 
it  be  indeed  by  Jean  Cousin,  combines  in  itself  all 
that  gives  value  to  art  objects  :  it  is  a  fine  work,  its 
author  is  celebrated,  and  his  productions  are  rare. 

Germain  Pilon  (about  1515 — 1590)  was  a  sculptor 
only,  and  as  industrious  as  he  was  skilful.  There 
was  no  need  to  rob  the  vaults  of  St.  Denis  of  the 
tombs  of  Francois  I.  and  Henri  II.,  for  the  Louvre 
contains  a  large  collection  of  his  works.  It  pos- 
sesses, for  instance,  the  mausoleums   of  the  Chan- 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  303 

cellor  of  France,  Rene  Birague  (or  Birago,  for  he 
was  an  Italian,  like  Gondi,  Concini,  and  Mazarin), 
and  of  Valentine  Balbiani,  his  wife.  It  was  of  him 
that  Michelet  said :  "  Birague,  the  man  of  the 
St.  Bartholoinew,  who  was  so  impatient  to  be  a 
cardinal,  that  he  suddenly  became  a  widower." 
These  tombs,  with  the  two  spirits  extinguishing 
their  torches,  originally  formed  one  monument, 
which  is  now  divided.  On  one  tomb  the  bronze 
figure  of  the  chancellor,  in  his  long  robes,  kneels  in 
the  attitude  of  prayer.  It  would  perhaps  be  im- 
possible to  find  a  more  natural  and  life-like  bronze 
statue.  On  the  other  tomb,  which  formed  a  kind 
of  pedestal  to  the  former,  the  marble  figure  of 
Valentine  is  extended,  supporting  herself  on  her 
pillows,  and  reading  the  holy  scriptures  with  down- 
cast eyes.  Near  her  is  a  little  dog.  What  con- 
stitutes the  great  originality  of  this  monument,  is 
that  the  same  person  is  seen  in  very  low  relief  on 
the  front  of  the  base,  not  now  living  and  clothed, 
but  nude,  emaciated,  and  lifeless.  This  admirable 
bas-relief  sculptured  beneath  the  statue  affords  a 
visible  contrast  between  death  and  life  ;  it  teaches 
contempt  for  the  flesh,  it  embodies  the  grand  but 
false  idea  of  the  Christians. 

After  this  double  mausoleum,  the  most  celebrated 
work  of  Germain  Pilon  is  the  group  of  three  women 


C04  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

supporting  a  gilt  vase,  intended,  it  is  said,  to  con- 
tain tiic  hearts  of  Henri  II.  and  Catherine  de 
Medicis.  This  group,  which  was  chiselled  in  a 
single  block  of  marble,  was  ordered  by  the  mother 
of  the  three  kings  (Francois  II.,  Charles  IX.,  and 
Henri  III.),  and  placed  by  her  in  the  church  of  the 
Celestines.  What  does  it  represent .''  For  a  long 
time  it  was  called  the  Three  Graces,  and  it  is  under 
this  name  that  it  is  known  ;  others,  however,  have 
contended  that  they  were  meant  for  the  three 
Theological  Virtues.  Hence  a  learned  controversy. 
On  the  one  side,  in  support  of  the  old  belief, 
attention  is  called  to  the  inscription  of  the  word 
Charities  {')(apLTe<;),  the  Greek  name  of  the  Graces  ; 
whilst  holders  of  the  modern  opinion  have 
replied  that  this  name,  badly  written  or  badly 
read,  was  merely  Charity,  and  that  the  Christian 
Virtues  were  more  likely  to  be  represented  on 
a  sepulchral  monument  placed  in  a  church  than 
the  heathen  Graces.  Adhuc  sub  jiidice  lis  est.  But 
the  latter  supposition  is  the  more  probable.* 

*  "With  regard  to  the  Greeks,"  say  MM.  Louis  and  Reue 
Menard,  ' '  we  must  remark,  that  the  great  idea  of  which  these 
goddesses  are  the  expression,  has  been  generally  ill  comprehended 
by  the  moderns,  as  is  always  the  case  with  a  synonym.  The 
word  grace  signifies  both  beneficence  and  elegance,  and  the  former 
meaning  has  been  forgotten  whilst  the  second  has  been  adopted. 
The  inhabitants  of  Siena  were  nearer  the  truth  when  they  took  the 


FBENCH  SCULPTURE.  305 

With  this  famous  and  puzzling  gioup  we  will 
notice  four  other  figures,  female  also,  but  of  wood, 
which  supported  the  shrine  of  St.  Genevieve. 
I  shall  not  attempt  to  explain  them,  for  according 
to  the  adage,  Niimero  Dens  impure  gaudet,  it  is 
difficult  to  find  a  religious  meaning  in  the  number 
four.  Together  with  the  bust  portraits  of  Henri 
II.,  Charles  IX.,  and  Henri  III.,  a  small  child's 
bust  (probably  that  of  Catherine's  other  son,  the 
Duke  of  Alencon),  and,  lastly,  a  bas-relief  in  stone, 
the  Sermon  of  St.  Paul  at  Athens,  which  formerly 
adorned  the  pulpit  of  the  Grand  Augustines.  We 
have  now  mentioned  all  the  works  of  the  illustrious 
Germain  Pilon. 

Amongst  the  works  of  the  three  founders  of  the 
French  school  of  sculpture  are  to  be  found  two 
monuments  erected  by  Paolo -Ponzio  Trebatti,  of 
Florentine  oriein,  who  is  often  called  Maitre  Ponce. 


three  giaces  for  the  three  theological  virtues,  Faith,  Hope,  and 
Charity  ;  and  as  the  name  of  graces  no  longer  suggests  anything  to 
the  mii.<i,  but  the  childish  fancies  of  the  last  century,  their  Greek 
name,  ch.irities,  should  be  restored  to  these  goddesses.  With  the 
ancients  this  word  signified  joy  and  affection,  generosity  and 
gratitude.  The  symbols  of  these  three  inseparable  sisters,  called  the 
beneficent,  the  charities  simultaneously  expressed  the  gifts  of  the 
gods  and  the  bleaiings  of  men." 

Can   Germain    Pilcn  have  anticipated  as  early   as   the  sixteenth 
century  the  learned  modt-m  discoveries  in  symbolism  ? 

X 


306  FRENCH  SCULPTUEE. 

He  came  to  I  ranee  with  Primaticcio,  and,  like  him, 
remained  there.  These  monuments  are  the  tombs 
of  Alberto  Pio,  of  Savoy,  duke  of  Carpi,  one  of  the 
generals  of  Francois  I.,  and  of  Charles  de  Magny, 
or  Maigne,  captain  of  the  watch  under  Henri  H. 
The  Duke  of  Carpi's  effigy,  a  bronze  likeness, 
reclines  upon  the  base  of  the  tomb  ;  he  is  leaning 
on  the  left  elbow,  meditating  on  an  open  book. 
The  statue  of  Charles  de  Magny,  a  portrait  also, 
but  in  stone,  is  completely  clothed  in  mail  ;  he 
sleeps  in  a  sitting  posture,  his  halberd  in  his  hand  : 
Tie  is  at  his  post.  These  two  figures  by  Trebatti 
give  us  a  very  high  opinion  of  the  frenchified 
Italian,  who  has  been  much  lauded  for  the  boldness 
of  his  style,  and  to  whom  many  of  the  best  works 
of  other  artists  have  been  attributed,  such  as  the 
St.  George  of  Michael  Colomb,  and  even  the 
Admiral  Chabot  of  Jean  Cousin. 

Above  the  Duke  of  Carpi,  in  a  terra-cotta 
medallion,  we  see  a  head  of  Hercules  in  high  relief, 
wearing  the  lion's  skin.  It  belongs  to  the  decora- 
tions of  a  house  at  Rheims,  and  is  attributed  to 
Pierre  Jacques.  Who  is  Pierre  Jacques  .'*  Can  it 
by  happy  chance  be  that  Mattre  Jacques,  native  of 
Angouleme,  who,  in  1 5  50,  competed  with  Michael 
Angelo  at  Rome  for  a  figure  of  St.  Peter,  and  who 
has  left  some  excellent  wax   models  of  a  living, 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  307 

a  flayed,  and  a  dissected  man  ?  If  so,  this  Hercules 
is  very  valuable. 

We  will  now  continue  our  study  of  French 
sculpture  in  the  Louvre,  which  contains  scarcely 
any  but  the  greatest  works. 

If  the  room  next  to  that  of  Jean  Goujon  con- 
tained any  more  important  works  by  Sarrazin  than 
a  bronze  bust  of  the  chancellor,  Pierre  Seguier,  the 
Mausoleum  of  the  Prince  of  Conde,  or  that  of  the 
Cardinal  de  Berulle,  for  instance,  it  would  certainly 
have  been  named  after  him  and  not  after  the 
Anguiers.  This  honour  should  legitimately  belong 
to  the  sculptor  who,  in  conjunction  with  the  paintei 
Lebrun,  founded  the  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts^ 
and  who,  being  born  in  1590,  and  educated  in  Italy, 
forms  a  connecting  link  and  represents  the  tran- 
sition between  Jean  Goujon  and  Pierre  Puget, 
Frangois  I.  and  Louis  XIV.  But  if  Sarrazin  be 
set  aside,  his  immediate  predecessor,  Simon 
Guillain  (1581-1658)  would  perhaps  have  the  right 
of  naming  this  second  French  room.  Guillain  was 
the  author  ofthe  bronze  statues  of  Louis  XIII.,  Anne 
of  Austria,  and  Louis  XIV.  as  a  child,  which  formerly 
composed  the  Monument  of  the  Pont  an  Change, 
and  are  now  in  the  Louvre.  He  was  the  master 
ofthe  two  brothers  Anguier,  who  have  been  preferred 
to  him.    .  Let  us  resign  ourselves  to  this  choice. 


303  FRESCH  SCULPTURE. 

In  the  centre  of  their  room  rises  an  obelisk  in 
decorated  marble  with  four  symbolical  figures 
round  the  base,  Truth,  Union,  Justice,  and  Force. 
An  inscription  informs  us  that  it  is  the  funereal 
monument  of  Henri  de  Longueville.  Of  which  ? 
Of  the  Henri  I.,  who  gained  the  battle  of  Senlis  on 
the  Ligne  in  1589,  or  Henri  H.,  who  was  one  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  Fronde,  in  conjunction  with  his  wife. 
Cardinal  de  Retz,  and  the  Prince  of  Conde  ?  In 
any  case  the  elder  of  the  Anguiers,  Frangois  (1004— 
1669),  is  the  author  of  the  mausoleum  and  also 
of  the  tombs  of  Jacques-Auguste  de  Thou  and  of 
the  Princess  of  Conde,  Charlotte  de  la  Tremouille, 
two  marble  figures  kneeling  in  prayer.  Another 
sepulchral  monument,  that  of  Jacques  de  Souvre 
de  Courtenvaux,  together  with  a  bust  of  the  great 
Colbert,  are  by  the  younger  Anguier,  Michel 
(1 61 2- 1 686),  whose  name  ought  to  be  popular  in 
Paris,  for  he  executed,  after  the  designs  of  Lebrun, 
the  ornaments  of  the  triumphal  arch  ^^•hich  has 
become  the  St.  Denis  gate,  and  the  fine  Christ  on 
the  O'oss  set  up  on  the  theatrical  decoration  intro- 
duced into  the  church  of  St.  Roch,  and  called  the 
Calvary,  Although  executed  with  care,  knowledge, 
and  talent,  these  various  works  by  the  two  Anguiers 
are  spoiled  by  their  heaviness,  the  fault  which  should 
be  especially  avoided  in  handli^ig  marble  and  bronze. 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  303 

It  appears  that  F'rench  sculpture  was  for  a  long 
time  chiefly  employed  in  tombs.  There  are  two 
others  in  the  same  room  :  that  of  the  constable 
Anne  de  Montmorency,  killed  at  the  battle  of 
St.  Denis  in  1567,  and  that  of  his  wife,  Madeleine 
de  Savoie-Tende.  These  are  two  marble  figures 
lying  on  their  backs,  with  folded  hands,  in  the  old 
form  of  the  tombs  of  the  Middle  Ages.  These  mau- 
soleums, together  with  the  busts  of  Henri  IV.  and 
the  president  Christophe  de  Thou,  are  by  a  certain 
Barthelemy  Prieur,  an  artist  but  little  known  now, 
and  of  whom  there  is  no  record  in  biographies.  Judg- 
ing by  his  style,  however,  he  must  have  preceded 
the  Anguiers,  and  probably  even  Simon  Guillain. 

He  would  thus  be  the  contemporary  of  Pierre 
Francheville  (1548-  .  .  .  ),  whom  a  somewhat  ex- 
cessive generosity  has  made  the  godfather  of  the 
last  room.  Surely  the  distorted  and  unsightly  statues 
of  Orpheus  and  of  David,  conqueror  of  Goliath, 
have  not  obtained  this  honour  for  the  enervated 
pupil  of  Giam-Bologna  ;  but  rather,  we  imagine, 
the  four  bronze  figures  of  vanquished  and  chained 
nations,  made  by  him  for  the  four  angles  of  the 
pedestal  of  Henri  IV.'s  statue  on  the  Pont  Neuf, 
of  which  a  few  fragments  only  now  remain,  it 
having  been  destroyed  in  the  Revolution.* 

*  The  work   of  Jean   de   Boulogne.       The    horse    was    given    to 


310  FllENCn  SCULPTURE. 

Michael  Anguier's  is  the  last  of  the  rooms  of  the 
Renaissance ;  and  the  first  of  those  containing 
modern  sculptures  is  named  after  Pierre  Puget. 

Jacques  Sarrazin,  the  companion  of  Simon 
Vouet  in  Italy,  his  friend  and  son-in-law  in  France, 
played  the  same  part  in  sculpture  as  the  latter  in 
painting  ;  and  Pierre  Puget's  (1622-1694)  was 
analogous  to  that  of  Nicolas  Poussin  —  indeed, 
with  all  his  faults,  he  was,  and  still  is,  in  my  opinion, 
the  greatest  of  PVench  sculptors  In  the  chief 
beauty  of  his  character,  in  his  love,  his  enthusiasm 
for  independence,  he  again  resembled  Poussin,  and 
at  the  same  time  Eustache  Lesueur.  Like  Poussin, 
Puget  for  a  time  tried  living  at  court  under  royal 
patronage  ;  but,  soon  disgusted  with  this  gilded 
servitude,  and  rebelling  against  the  exactions  of 
the  Inspector-general  of  the  Fine  Arts,  who  wished 
him  to  adopt  his  ideas  and  even  his  designs,  he 
returned  to  his  native  place,  Marseilles,  as  Poussin 
did  to  Rome,  and  gave  himself  up  in  solitude  to 
the  suggestions  of  his  genius.  There  he  became 
a  painter,  sculptor,  and  architect,  after  having  been 
a  ship-builder  in  his  youth.*     His  paintings,  which 


Marie  de  Medici,    widow  of  Henri  IV.,  by  her  fatlicr  Cosmo  II., 

Grand   Duke  of  Tuscany.  The  statue  of  the  royal   horseman  was 
added  later. 

*  Puget  first  conceived  and  carried  out  the  idea  of  those  huge 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  311 

are  pretty  numerous,  and  of  every  style,  have 
remained  in  the  :  owns  in  wliich  he  successively 
resided,  Genoa,  Toulon,  Aix,  Marseilles;*  but  his 
sculptures,  which  are  far  superior,  were  mostly  sent 
to  Versailles,  and  it  was  the  productions  of  his 
chisel  which  earned  him  the  beautiful  titles  of  the 
Riibcns  of  sculpture  and  the  French  Michael  Angelo. 
Although  resembling  Poussin  in  the  circumstances 
of  his  life,  and  in  his  character,  Puget  as  an  artist 
differed  essentially  from  the  great  painter  of 
Andelys.  He  was  carelessly  and  inadequately 
educated  ;  he  had  no  instructor  in  art  or  in  letters, 
he  saw  few  classical  models,  and  he   never  atoned 


poops,  with  double  galleries  and  wooden  figures,  which  were  soon 
imitated  eveniwhere  in  the  decoration  of  clumsy  high-decked  vessels. 
At  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  made  his  first  attempt  on  the  ship 
Queen,  and  later  he  applied  his  invention  with  the  greatest  success, 
to  the  Magnificent  of  104  guns,  equipped  by  the  Duke  of  Beaufort, 
the  old  Roi  des  Hulks  (Market  King),  when  he  went  to  aid  the 
Venetians  in  Candia.  Vessel  and  Admiral  perished  together  on  the 
25th  of  June,  1669. 

*  The  museum  of  the  last-named  town  contains  four  :  the  Baptism 
of  Clovis  and  the  Baptism  of  Constantine,  bearing  date  1652  (when 
Puget -vas  thirty  years  old),  and  much  spoilt  by  unskilful  restoration; 
\hc  Salvator  mundi  oi  1654,  better  preserved  and  quite  Italian,  in 
the  debased  style  of  Pietro  da  Cortona  ;  and  lastly,  the  portrait  of 
Puget  himself,  of  which  M.  Leon  Lagrange  Kays  :  "It  represents  a 
man  forty  years  old,  whose  expression  it  is  difficult  to  define  ;  it  is  a 
combination  of  natural  roughness,  acquired  refinement  and  restless 
eagerness,  the  brow  is  full  of  genius,  and  we  read  the  consciousness 
of  his  own  genius  in  the  eyec  and  mouth." 


312  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

for  the  faults  of  his  early  training  by  study  and 
reflection.  He  was  wanting  in  knowledge  and 
in  taste  ;  he  neither  knew  nor  understood  the 
beauties  of  antiquity  ;  but  he  was  as  original  as  he 
was  eccentric,  and  yielding  himself  unreservedly  to 
the  dictates  of  his  mighty  genius,  he  was  pre- 
eminently successful  in  expressing  life,  action, 
power,  and  sometimes  even  passion.  None  ex- 
celled him  in  giving  warmth  to  marble,  and 
I  might  add,  without  hesitation,  colour.  Like 
Michael  Angelo,  he  often  set  to  work  on  a  block 
without  preparation,  design,  or  sketch.  Puget  has 
hit  off  his  own  likeness  at  one  stroke,  in  the  letter 
written  when  he  was  already  sixty  years  old  to 
Louvois,  with  his  group  of  Perseus  and  Andromeda : 
"  I  am  nourished  by  great  Avorks  ;  I  labour  at  them, 
and  the  marble  trembles  before  me,  however  large 
be  the  piece."  * 

Who  could  recognise  in  the  Hercules  in  repose, 
without  the  club,  or  the  skin  of  the  Nemaean  lion, 
the  demigod  whom  the  Greeks  called  the  most 
beautiful  of  the  pentatldi,  because  his  limbs  were 
not  only  the  most  muscular,  but  also  the  most 
slender  and  supple.     Looking  at  this  coarse  head, 

*  The  translator  adds  the  original,  which  cannot  be  well  rendered 
in  English  :  "Je  suis  nourri  aux  grands  ouvrages,  je  nage  quand 
j'y  travaille,  et  le  marbre  tremble  devant  moi,  pour  grosse  que  soit 
la  pi^ce." 


FRENCH  SCULPTUBE.  313 

with  turned  up  nose,  we  say  to  ourselves  that 
Puget  has  merely  copied  some  porter  from  the 
wharf.  But  at  the  same  time,  how  happily  im- 
passive action  is  given,  how  well  the  flesh  and 
muscles  are  rendered,  how  instinct  with  life  is  the 
whole  body !  Take  from  this  statue  the  name  of 
Hercules,  call  it  only  a  wrestler,  a  market  porter, 
and  you  have  a  perfect  work. 

Still  more  perfect,  in  spite  of  the  unjust  disdain 
of  Cicognara,  is  the  group  of  Miio  of  Crotona, 
devoured  by  a  lion.  As  he  is  not  a  god,  we  do  not 
expect  him  to  be. represented  in  a  conventional  and 
sacred  form,  and  the  Crotonian  gives  us  a  very  fair 
idea  of  an  old  athlete.  The  life  and  action  of  the 
body  and  the  finished  execution  are  alike  wonder- 
ful, whilst  the  moral  expression  is  no  less  excellent. 
In  every  line,  from  head  to  foot,  the  rage  and 
suffering  of  the  famous  conqueror  in  the  Greek 
games  are  admirably  rendered  ;  his  powers  weak- 
ened by  old  age,  and  his  hand  caught  in  the  cleft 
tree,  he  feels  himself  torn  by  the  teeth  and  claws 
of  his  treacherous  enemy,  without  the  power  of 
defending  and  avenging  himself  with  the  mighty 
fist  which  once  felled  an  ox.  This  group  not  only 
resembles,  it  rivals  that  of  the  Laocoon;  and  we 
understand  that  when  the  case  which  brought  it  to 
Versailles  was    unpacked  before   Louis   XIV.,   the 


3  J  4  FRENCH  SCULP  TUBE. 

tender-hearted  Maria  Theresa,  full  of  fright  and 
pity,  exclaimed,  "  Ah,  mon  Dieu,  le  pauvre  homme  !" 
We  believe  that  this  3Ii/o  of  Crotona  is  considered 
the  chef-d'oeuvre  of  Puget,  and  perhaps  also  of  all 
French  sculpture. 

In  speaking  of  the  group  of  Perseus  delivering' 
Andromeda,  which  is  enlarged  by  a  figure  of  Cupid 
aiding  the  son  of  Danae  to  cut  the  chains  of  the 
beautiful  victim,  Puget  might  well  say,  "  however 
large  be  the  piece,"  for  I  know  of  no  modern  group 
of  greater  size,  and  to  find  "  a  larger  piece  "  we 
must  turn  to  the  Toro  Farnese  at  Naples,  which  has 
five  figures.  The  author  does  not  appear  to  have 
been  in  the  least  embarrassed  by  the  extreme 
difficulty  of  so  complicated  a  work  ;  neither  the 
clearness  of  the  subject,  the  general  action,  nor  the 
workmanship  of  the  various  details  which  make  up 
the  whole,  are  at  all  affected  or  impaired  by  it. 
Andromeda  is  pretty,  delicate,  and  pleasing ; 
Perseus,  strong,  bold,  irresistible,  like  the  son  ot 
Jupiter  mounted  on  Pegasus.  But  the  difference 
in  the  size  of  the  sexes  is  exaggerated ;  either 
Andromeda  is  a  little  girl,  or  Perseus  a  giant. 

We  notice  the  same  disproportion  in  an  eques- 
trian statue  of  the  Victorians  Alexander,  the  horse 
is  enormous  compared  to  the  rider.  But  perhaps 
Puget  intended  this  powerful  Bucephalus,  trampling 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  315 

under  foot  confused  heaps  of  conquered  nations,  to 
represent  the  various  forces  which  the  genius  of 
Alexander  held  united  for  his  distant  and  stupen- 
dous conquests.  The  rest  of  Puget's  works  in  the 
Louvre  are  a  plaster  copy  of  two  caryatides  which 
he  made  for  the  balcony  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville  of 
Toulon  ;  a  small  tomb,  in  which  two  angels  and 
two  cherubims  are  grouped  round  a  sepulchral  urn, 
and  the  large  and  singular  bas-relief  representing 
the  well-known  scene  of  Alexander  and  Diogenes. 
This  was  Puget's  last  work,  which  he  only  finished 
just  before  his  death,  at  the  age  of  seventy-four.  In 
this  he  again  resembles  Michael  Angelo,  whose  old 
age  was  so  laborious  and  prolific.  For  want  of  a 
better  name,  this  group  is  called  a  bas-relief,  but 
in  reality  it  contains  eveiy  kind  of  sculpture. 
Those  parts  which  stand  out,  the  head  of  Alex- 
ander's horse,  and  the  legs  of  Diogenes  lying  near 
his  tub  (which  should  be  a  large  earthenware 
vessel),  are  necessarily  in  full  relief;  whilst  the 
foreground  is  in  high,  and  the  background  in  low 
relief,  which  decreases  gradually  in  the  distant 
perspective.  This  sculptured  picture  is  an  extra- 
ordinary feat,  and  I  own  that  its  very  strangeness 
makes  its  author  near  akin  to  Michael  Angelo,  and 
still  nearer  to  Algardi,  but  it  removes  him  far  from 
Pheidias  ;  which  fact,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  proves 


316  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

that  the  arts  should  not  encroach  on  one  another ; 
that  there  should  be  no  debateable  land  between 
their  domains.  The  mission  of  sculpture  is  to 
gratify  the  taste  with  beautiful  forms  only  ;  at  her 
command  she  has  nothing  but  lines,  hollows,  and 
projections  ;  she  is  to  enable  us  to  touch  what 
painting  lets  us  see,  and  sculpture  has  no  more 
right  to  attempt  pictures  in  marble  than  painting 
to  make  monochrome  statues,  with  all  the  resources 
of  colour,  chiaroscuro,  and  perspective  at  her  com- 
mand. Puget's  example  is  decisive,  as  is  proved 
by  no  one  having  followed  it. 

The  second  room,  that  of  Antoine  Coysevox 
(1640-1720),  contains  a  fine  collection  of  the 
works  of  this  eminent  artist,  who  lived  shortly  after 
Puget,  and  resembled  him  in  talent.  Amongst 
them  we  notice  particularly  the  Mausoleum  of 
Carditial  Mazarin,  with  a  spirit  bearing  the  lictor's 
axe  and  three  allegorical  bronze  figures,  which 
makes  us  regret  the  Mausoleum  of  Colbert,  con- 
sidered Coysevox's  principal  work.  A  poor  enough 
statue  of  the  foolish  Duchess  of  Burgundy,  who 
wished  to  be  represented  as  Diana,  the  fair-limbed 
goddess;  a  statue  of  Louis  XIV.,  w^ho,  when 
young,  assumed  the  character  of  Apollo,  but  is  now 
depicted  as  old,  devout,  and  kneeling  in  prayer. 
The  busts  of  Richelieu,  Bossuet,  and  Fenelon,  which 


FliEXCII  SCULPTURE.  317 

were  not  successful  likenesses  ;  the  faces  of  all  three 
are  flat,  the  foreheads  low,  the  heads  narrow  ;  not 
at  all  like  their  painted  portraits  preserved  to  us  by 
Philippe  de  Champagne  and  Hyacinthe  Rigaud. 
The  busts  of  Pierre  Mignard  and  Charles  Lebrun, 
which  are,  on  the  contrary,  very  fine,  and  good 
likenesses.  They  are  so  superior  to  the  former, 
that  it  is  difficult  to  believ^e  they  are  from  the  same 
hand.  There  were,  in  fact,  two  periods  in  Coy- 
sevox's  life :  one  of  vigorous  power,  when  he 
sculptured  the  two  celebrated  painters  ;  the  other 
of  unskilfulness  or  weakness,  when  he  produced  the 
busts  of  the  great  ministers  and  the  celebrated 
writers.  * 

It  is  a  pity  that  there  is  no  work  in  the  Coysevox 
room  by  his  rival  Prancois  Girardon  (1630- 17 15), 
"  whom  La  Fontaine  and  Boileau,"  says  Thore, 
"  compared  to  Pheidias,  as  Moliere  compared  Mig- 
nard to  Raphael."  It  is  true  that  Girardon  paid 
court  to  Louis  XIV.  and  Lebrun,  and  only  pro- 
duced in  marble  the  designs  imposed  on  him  by 
the  arrogant  president  of  the  Academy  ;  but  for  all 
that  the  gigantic  groups  of  Pluto  carrying  away 
Proserpine,  and  Apollo  descending  to  Thetis,  with 
which  he  adorned  the  gardens  of  Versailles,  have 
earned  him  a  distinguished  position  amongst  the 
sculptors  of  the  reign  of  the  grand  monarque. 


318 


FRENCH  SCULPTUBE. 


The  third  room  is  named  after  the  brothers 
Coustou,  Nicolas  (1658-1735),  and  Guillaume 
(1678-1746).  The  former  is  the  author  of  the 
group  called  the  Junction  of  tlw.  Seine  and  Marjie, 


'^■<:^ 


Fig.  58. — Riding-Master  of  Marly. 
(Paris,  Champs-Elysees.) 

in  the  Tuileries  Garden  ;  and  the  latter  of  the 
famous  Eciiyers  or  Chevaux  de  Marly,  now  placed  at 
the  entrance  to  the  Champs  Elysees.  The  works  con- 
tained in  this  room  would  not  alone  have  earned  for 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 


31  y 


the  Coustous  the  honour  of  naming  it.  On  one  side 
we  have  Louis  XV^  as  Jupiter,  in  Roman  costume, 
and  Queen  Maria  Leczinska,  as  Juno  ;  pretentious 
figures   in   bad  taste,  at  once  feeble  and  theatrical, 


^'o-  59- — Ridin5,'-Master  of  Marly. 
(Paris,  Champs-Klysee.) 

in  the  false  and  ridiculous  antique  style  which  was 
introduced  on  the  stage  by  Lekain  and  others  of 
his  dav.  On  the  other  side  Louis  XIV.,  in  rectal 
mantle,  holding  his  crown  and  sceptre,  but  kneeling 


320  FliENCH  SCULPTURE. 

and  bending  forward  in  the  humble  attitude  of  his 
Vow  to  the  Virgm,  like  the  princes  of  the  Lower 
Empire  naming  the  mother  of  Jesus  generalissimo 
of  their  armies.  The  execution  of  this  figure 
renders  it  beautiful,  and  it  is  not  even  spoilt  by  the 
style.  M.  Ingres,  probably  without  having  seen  it, 
has  reproduced  it  exactly  in  his  picture  on  the 
same  subject — the  Voiv  of  Louis  XIV. 

This  Coustou  room  would  therefore  be  nearly 
empty,  were  it  not  filled  with  other  works,  which 
appear  to  me  more  interesting  and  remarkable. 
We  allude  to  the  diploma  subjects  successively 
presented  by  the  members  of  the  Academy  of 
Sculpture  on  their  admission  to  that  body,  which 
preceded  the  Institute  of  the  Fine  Arts.  They  are 
all  little  groups  of  figures  a  foot  and  a  half  high, 
some  representing  Christian,  but  the  greater 
number  mythological  subjects.  The  rule  as  to  size 
better  enabled  those  enervated  successors  of  Puget 
to  compete,  who  knew  not  how  to  carve  "large 
pieces,"  and  to  make  the  "  marble  tremble  before 
them."  As  most  of  these  sculptors  are  entirely 
unknown,  in  spite  of  their  title  of  academicians, 
it  will  be  useful  to  recall  their  names,  and  to 
mention  one  work  characteristic  of  each. 

We  begin,  then,  with  a  Hercules  on  the  pile,  by 
Guillaume  Coustou  ;  a  Hercules  crozoned  by  Glory, 


FULWCII  SCULPTURE.  3L'l 

in  high  rehcf,  by  Dcsjardins  (the  Fleming,  Martin 
Van  Bogaert)  ;  a  JesJis  bearing  His  Cross,  by 
Bouchardon  ;  a  Milo  of  Crot07ia,  devoured  by  the 
lion,  by  Etienne  Falconnet*  (1706^1791),  the  friend 
of  Diderot  ;  a  Mercury  attaching  the  wijigs  to  his 
Jicds,  by  Jean  Baptiste  Pigalle  (17 14 — 1785)  ;  and 
a  River  God,  pouring  water  from  his  urn,  by  Jacques 
Caffieri  (1723 — 1792).  All  these  became  celebrated 
by  more  important  works  ;  Caffieri,  for  instance,  has 
left  excellent  busts  of  Rotrou  and  the  two  Corneilles, 
in  the  lobby  of  the  Theatre  Franqais.  M.  Thore 
very  justly  remarks  :  "These  busts  have  the  bold- 
ness of  Puget,  the  grace  of  Germain  Pilon.  the 
skilful  execution  of  Coysevox,  and  the  spirit  of 
Coustou." 

We  now  proceed  to  enumerate  those  who  are 
nearly  or  entirely  unknown,  with  the  single  work 
which  is  to  rescue  them  from  oblivion.  The  Leda 
and  the  Swan,  by  Jean  Thierry  (1669 — 1739),  which 
anticipated   the   Pompadour  style  by  thirty  years. 

*  Falconnet  is  the  author  of  the  fine  bronze  equestrian  statue 
which  Catherine  II.  had  raised  to  Peter  the  Great,  in  Saint  Isaac's 
Square,  at  St.  Petersburg.  Set  up  on  a  granite  rock,  it  bears  the 
inscription :  Pefro  primo  Cathcrina  seninda.  To  express  the  tnie 
thought  of  the  foundress,  it  should  now  be  changed  to :  Petro 
Magna  Cathcritia  Magna.  "  The  statue  that  the  Empress  of  Russia 
raised  to  Peter  the  Great  speaks  to  all  nations  from  the  banks  of  the 
Neva;  it  says  :  I  await  that  of  Catherine."  (Voltaire,  art.  Beaux- 
arts,  in  the  Diet.  Philos.) 

Y 


322  FRENCH  SCULFTURE. 

St.  Sebastian  at  the  Pillar,  by  Francois  Coudray 
(1678 — 1727)  ;  and  St.  Andrczv  before  his  Cross,  by 
Jean  Baptiste  d'Huez  ;  two  good  studies  of  the 
sacred  style.  Hercules  vanquished  by  Love,  by 
Joseph  Vinache  (1697 — 1744),  which  shows  more 
knowledge  and  appreciation  of  the  antique  than 
the  Hercules  of  Puget.  Plutus,  by  Anselme  Flamen 
(.  .  .  .  — 1730).  Ulysses  bending  his  bozv,  by  Jacques 
Rousseau  (.  .  .  ,  — 1740),  a  powerful  and  finely- 
finished  work.  A  Titan  struck  by  thunder,  by 
Edme.  Dumont  (....  — 1755),  which  merits  the 
same  praise.  Polyphemus  on  the  rock,  with  the  one 
eye  in  his  forehead  above  the  two  empty  sockets, 
by  Corneille  Van  Clev^es,  who  was  no  doubt  a 
Fleming,  like  Desjardins.  Neptune  calming  the 
waves,  the  Quos  ego  of  Virgil,  by  Lambert  Sigisbert 
Adam  (1700 — 1759).  Prometheus  and  the  Vulture, 
by  Nicolas  Sebastien  Adam  (1705  — 1778),  who 
has  well  expressed  the  contortions  of  acute  agony 
and  powerless  rage  (this  is  not  the  indomitable 
Prometheus  of  ^Eschylus).  Lastly,  a  Charon,  \\ith- 
out  the  author's  name  ;  which  is,  however,  one  of 
the  best  of  these  academic  pieces,  remarkable  for 
the  gloomy  and  reserved  expression  suitable  to  the 
ferryman  of  hell. 

In  the  room  of  Edme  Bouchardon  (1698 — 1762), 
containing  works  of  the  eighteenth  century,  we  are 


FniiNCJI  SCULI'TIRE.  3':3 

surrounded  by  Cupids  and  Psyches  in  the  true 
Pompadour  style.  And  yet  no  one  shared  the 
spirit  of  his  age  less  than  Bouchardon  himself. 
Well-educated,  conscientious,  and  of  quiet  appear- 
ance, he  avoided  pomp,  and  lived  in  solitude, 
because,  enamoured  as  he  was  of  the  antique,  the 
absurdity  of  the  fashionable  costumes  was  re- 
pugnant to  his  taste  and  predilections.  His  style, 
correct  and  noble,  but  somewhat  cold,  needed  only 
a  few  sparks  of  Puget's  fiery  enthusiasm  to  give 
it  animation.  We  can  appreciate  his  statues  of 
Christ,  Mary,  and  of  eight  Apostles  which  adorn 
the  church  of  St.  Sulpice,  and  the  fine  sculptures  of 
the  fountain  of  the  Rue  dc  Greiielle ;  and  we  might 
have  appreciated  his  equestrian  statue  of  Louis  XV., 
the  horse  of  which  was  considered  a  masterpiece, 
had  it  not  been  destroyed  in  1793.  But  to  under- 
stand to  what  an  extent  this  eminent  artist  loved 
and  understood  true  beauty,  in  this  age  of  the 
insipid  shepherdesses  of  Boucher  and  his  fellows,  we 
have  only  to  examine  the  Young  Girl,  holding  a 
stag  by  a  cord,  in  the  Louvre.  The  soft  and 
pleasing  attitude,  the  graceful  form,  the  head, 
which  is  more  than  beautiful,  almost  grand,  and  the 
delicacy  of  the  execution,  combine  to  render  this 
charming  statue  the  most  antique  of  modern  works. 
Canova  is  anticipated,  his  spirit  is  here.     Similar,  if 


324  FliENCII  SCULPTURE. 

not  equal  })raise  is  due  to  the  Victorious  Cupid,  a 
beautiful  youth,  cutting  out  his  bow  in  Hercules' 
club  with  the  sword  of  Mars,  as  well  as  to  the 
group  of  Psyche  and  Cnpid.  We  sec  the  inquisitive 
beauty  drawing  near  to  her  sleeping  lover  with  the 
fatal  lamp.  He  will  flee  as  soon  as  he  is  known, 
to  typify  that  happiness  is  as  little  enduring  as  a 
passing  illusion. 

Bouchardon's  room  rejoices  in  another  Psyche,  by 
Augustin  Pajou  (1730 — 1809),  which  represents  her 
inconsolable  at  the  flight  of  the  fickle  god,  and 
given  up  to  the  vengeance  of  Venus.  That  there 
may  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  name  and  meaning  of 
his  statue,  he  has  written  the  following  mischievous 
line  round  the  pedestal  : 

"  Psyche  lost  Love  in  wishing  to  know  him." 

This  inscription,  beneath  the  nude  figure  of  a 
clumsy  and  ungraceful  courtesan,  who  is  neither 
the  Phryne  of  Praxiteles  nor  the  Venus  of  Gnidus, 
reminds  us  of  that  painter  of  Ubeda,  whom  Cer- 
vantes makes  fun  of,  who  worked  at  random,  salira 
to  que  saliere,  and  wrote  beneath  the  chance  pro- 
duction of  his  brush,  "  This  is  a  cock,"  that  it  mig-ht 
not  be  taken  for  a  fox.  Pajou  atoned  for  this, 
however,  in  a  fine,  life-like,  and  speaking  portrait  of 
Bufifon  ;  he  was  always  successful  with  sculptured 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  325 

likenesses,  those  of  women  especially,  and  knew 
how  to  make  them  pretty  and  pleasing  in  spite  ol 
the  shapeless  head-dresses  to  which  they  were  con- 
demned by  fashion.  Two  other  nude  figures,  by 
Chretien  Allegrain  (1705  — 1/95),  called  Venus  and 
Diana  at  the  Bath,  are  scarcely  worthy  of  even 
a  passing  notice.. 

The  room  named  after  Houdon  is  not  reserved 
to  him  alone,  but  to  all  those  who  may  be  con- 
sidered his  contemporaries  ;  for,  with  the  exception 
of  one,  the  sculptors  whose  works  it  contains  died 
after  the  beginning  of  the  present  century.  Jean 
BaptistePigalle  (1714 — I785)livedand  died  last  cen- 
tury ;  he  has  only  one  work  in  the  Louvre,  a  bust- 
portrait  of  Maurice  of  Saxony  in  lias  limestone. 
This  artist  preferred  truth  to  beauty  ;  he  was  a 
most  persevering  worker,  as  prolific  as  he  was  skilful, 
and,  good  and  life-like  as  is  this  one  likeness,  it  is 
not  enough  to  represent  such  a  man  in  the  museum 
of  France.  We  must  seek  him  rather  in  the  Library 
of  the  Institute,  where  we  find  his  strange  statue  ot 
Voltaire,  whom  he  insisted  upon  representing  nudo, 
although  he  was  old  and  emaciated  ;  in  one  of  the 
chapels  of  Notre  Dame,  where  we  find  the  Tomb  of 
Marshal  Harconrt,  which  he  composed  in  accord- 
ance with  a  dream  of  the  hero's  widow,  and  last,  not 
least,   in  the   Protestant  church   of  St.  Thomas,  at 


326  FRESCn  SCULPTURE. 

Strasburg,  which  contains  the  celebrated  Momiuient 
to  Maj'shal  Saxe,  executed  in  marble  by  Pigalle,  after 
the  designs  of  his  friend  Charles  Nicolas  Cochin. 
Death  opens  a  grave  at  the  feet  of  the  hero  of 
Fontenoy,  and  weeping  France  strives  to  retain  him. 

We  will  now  name  the  other  sculptors  of  the 
same  room,  that  is,  of  the  same,  age,  as  Pigalle, 
according  to  the  date  of  their  birth. 

By  Jean  Antoine  Houdon  (1741  — 1828),  to 
whom  \\&  owe  the  Flayed  Man  so  well  known  in 
schools  of  art,  we  have  a  bronze  Diana,  whom,  but 
for  the  crescent  and  the  bow,  we  should  scarcely 
take  for  the  chaste  goddess  of  Ephesus,  for  she  is 
represented  entirely  nude,  without  veil  of  any  kind. 
It  is  a  fine  study  in  a  pure  style,  I  own,  although 
somewhat  heavy  for  the  nimble  huntress,  but  it  is 
spoiled  by  the  stiff  action  and  strained  attitude. 
There  is  far  more  disinvoltura,  grace,  and  charm 
in  the  marble  group  of  Cnpid  and  Psyche  chasing 
butterflies,  and  in  Psyche  zvith  the  Lamp,  Psyche 
punished  for  her  curiosity,  and  weeping  for  her 
lost  happiness.  Can  this  difference  of  style  be 
accounted  for  by  the  difference  of  material  1  Is 
metal  less  subservient  to  the  will  of  the  artist  than 
marble  }  This  question  is  answered  on  the  spot  by 
Houdon  himself,  for  the  bronze  bust  of  Jean 
Jacques  Rousseau,  wearing  the  narrow  fillet  of  the 


FRENCH  SCULrTUHE. 


3L'7 


conqueror  in  the  01)'mpic  games,  is  placed  near 
that  in  marble  of  the  Abbe  Aubert,  and  I  do  not 
think  that  this   portrait  of  the  author  of  Emile  is 


Fig.  60. — Voltaire,  by  Hou  ion. 

inferior  in  beauty  of  workmanship  and  truth  to  that 
of  the  La  Fontaine  of  children. 

Houdon   is  however,  better    represented    in  the 


328  FUENCU  SCULP  TUBE. 

Theitre  Fran^ais  than  in  his  own  room  in  the 
Louvre.  The  bust  of  Moliere,  in  the  lobby,  and 
the  statue  of  Voltaire  seated,  in  the  vestibule,  are 
excellent  and  superior  works,  which  will  bear  com- 
parison with  any  of  those  by  his  contemporaries. 
In  them  Houdon  has  showed  how  the  ideal  may  be 
combined  with  the  real,  the  quickening  spirit  ^vith 
the  body  it  animates.  He  has  in  every  case  given 
his  models  expression  ;  an  expression  as  keen  as 
that  of  the  portraits  of  Titian  and  Rembrandt.  I 
like  to  think  that  the  statue  of  Washington,  made 
by  Houdon  for  Philadelphia,  is  equally  worthy  of 
the  virtuous  and  illustrious  founder  of  American 
independence,  of  the  greatest  public  man  of  modern 
times,  on  whom  Byron  pronounces  a  eulogium  at 
the  end  of  his  "  Ode  to  Napoleon  :" 

"  Wliere  may  the  wearied  eye  repose, 

When  gazing  on  the  great  ; 
Where  neither  guilty  glory  glows, 

Nor  despicable  state  ? 
Yes — one — the  first— the  last — the  best, 
The  Cincinnatus  of  the  West, 

Whom  envy  dared  not  hate. 
Bequeath  the  name  of  Washington, 
To  make  man  blush  there  was  but  one.'"* 


*  On  the  new  monument   to  Washington,   at  Philadelphia,  the 
Americans  have  inscribed  : 
"The  first  in  war, 
The  first  in  peace. 
And  the  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow-citizens." 


FRENCH  SCULPTUL'E.  329 

By  P.  L.  Roland  (1746 — 18 19)  we  have  a  Homer 
in  rhapsody,  accompanying  himself  on  his  lyre. 
By  Antoine  Denis  Chaudet  (1765 — 18 10)  a  Cupid 
seizing  a  butterfly,  the  symbol  of  the  soul,  and  the 
group  of  the  Shepherd  Phorbas  carrying  aivay  the 
young  CEdipus,  which  is  considered  the  best  of  his 
woi'ks,  and  is  certainly  one  of  the  best  of  the  time 
of  Louis  David.  By  Adrien  Gois  (1765 — 1823)  an 
alabaster  bust  of  Corinjia.  Is  this  the  ancient  rival 
of  Pindarus,  or  the  heroine  of  Madame  de  Stael's 
romance  (Corinne) }  By  Joseph  Bosio  (1790 — 1845) 
an  Aristmis,  not  as  a  hero,  but  as  the  god  of  bees, 
and  two  youthful  figures,  male  and  female,  which 
would  make  a  good  pair :  one  is  Hyacinthns,  the 
beloved  child  of  Apollo,  by  whom  he  was  struck  on 
the  head  with  a  quoit,  in  consequence  of  the 
jealousy  of  Zephyrus  ;  the  other  is  the  nymph 
Salmaeis,  dying  of  love  for  the  son  of  Hermes  and 
Aphrodite,  with  whom  she  was  united  in  one  body 
(Hermaphrodite). 

It  is  a  pity  that  a  bust  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  with 
a  sanctimonious  and  imbecile  expression,  has  been 
placed  near  these  fine  works.  It  shows  that  its 
author,  Bosio,  knew  no  better  how  to  express 
religious  feeling  in  sculpture  than  in  painting. 
He  was  foolish  enough  to  attempt  the  sacred  style 
in  his  old  age,  and,  with  still  greater  foolishness,  he 


330  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

took  the  public  into  his  confidence.  By  Charles 
Dupaty  (1775  — 1825)  we  have  a  Byblis  changed 
into  a  fountain.  By  P.  L.  Roman  (1792  — 1835)  a 
group  of  Nisus  and  Euryalus  dying  together,  as 
related  in  the  sixth  canto  of  the  ^neid.  By  J.  P. 
Cortot  (1787 — 1843)  another  group,  less  tragic,  and 
better  suited  to  the  requirements  of  sculpture,  of 
DapJinis  and  CJdoi'  learning  to  play  the  double 
pipe,  a  piece  as  pretty  and  pleasing  as  the  tale  of 
Longus  in  the  translation  of  Amyot. 

We  have  now  passed  through  the  Louvre  and 
are  at  the  entrance  to  the  Luxembourg.  In  this 
museum  we  find  none  but  the  works  of  contem- 
porary painters  and  sculptors,  and  for  the  reason 
given  in  a  former  work,  we  shall  abstain  from  all 
criticism  on  those  groups  of  statuary.  We  will  merely 
mention  the  names  and  works  of  those  who  have 
been  worthy  to  pass  through  this  museum  of  living 
artists,  to  be  reckoned  after  their  death  amongst 
our  national  glories.  For  greater  impartiality  we 
will  arrange  them  in  alphabetical  order  : 

A  JagiM  devouring  a  Hare,  by  M.  'Antoine 
Louis  Barye  (1795 — .  .  .  .),  a  bronze  group  cast  in 
one  mould,  the  wax  being  broken  ;  a  process  fallen 
into  disuse  since  the  Renaissance.  Amongst  the 
other  state  collections  there  are  more  works  by 
M.  Barye,  such  as  the  four  figures  of  Peace,  War, 


FBENCH  SCULPTUllE.  331 

Force,  and  Order,  which  adorn  the  pavilion  of  the 
new  Louvre  ;  and  the  Lion  dciwuring  a  Boa,  in  the 
Tuileries  Garden.  Every  one  knows  how  justly 
famous  is  M.  Barye  for  his  representations  of 
animals.  A  Cupid  clipping  /lis  zvings,  by  M.  Jean 
Marie  Bonnassieux  (i8io — ....).  Truth,  by  M. 
Pierre  Jules  Cavelier  (1814),  to  whom  we  are  also 
indebted  for  the  statue  of  Blaise  Pascal,  on  the 
ground  floor  of  the  tower  of  St.  Jacques,  and  the 
beautiful  Sleeping  Penelope,  for  which  the  Due  de 
Lu\-nes  had  a  special  pavilion  constructed  in  his 
Chateau  de  Dampierre.  A  Young  Hunter  playing 
zvith  his  Dog,  by  M.  Antoine  Laurent  Dantan 
(1798).  Psyche  deserted  by  Cupid,  by  M.  Antoine 
Desboeufs  (1793).  Innocence,  by  M.  Louis  Desprez 
(1799).  Cupid  tormenting  a  Soul,  symbolised  by  a 
Butterfly,  by  M.  Augustin  Alexandre  Dumont 
(1801)  ;  who  is  also  the  author  of  the  fine  Genius  of 
Liberty,  on  the  Column  of  July.  A  Young  Fisher 
DaJicing  the  Tarantella,  b>^  Francois  Joseph  Duret 
(1804-),  who  has  since  produced  the  companion 
groups  of  the  Young  Neapolitan  Dancer,  and  the 
Improvisatore  at  the  Vintage.  A  Woiinded  Dog,  by 
M.  Emmanuel  Frdmiet  (1824-),  which  is  merely  a 
sample  of  the  numerous  animals  executed  by  him  in 
imitation  of  M.  Barye.  Minerva  after  the  Judgment 
of  Paris,  by  M.  Nicolas  Marie  Gattcaux  (17S8-),  who 


332  FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 

was  more  celebrated  and  successful  as  an  engraver  of 
medals,  Miitius  SccBvola,  by  M.  Charles  Theodore 
Gruyere.  The  Gicardian  Angel  leading  a  Repentant 
Sinner  to  God,  by  M.  Jean  Aristide  Husson  (1803-). 
A  Naiad,  by  M.  Georges  Jacquot  (1794-).  The 
Prayer,  and  Modesty,  by  M.  Leon  Louis  Nicolas 
Jaley  (1802-).  Innocence,  a  young  girl  confiding  her 
first  secret  to  Venus.  A  Young  Girl  Frightened  by 
a  Snake,  by  M.  Philippe  Henri  Lemaire  (1797-). 
Ariadne,  by  M.  Aime  Millet  (1816-)  ;  for  which  his 
Bacchant  o(  the:  Universal  Exhibition,  1855,  would  be 
a  good  companion  s-tatue.  A  Young  Hunter  Woimded 
by  a  Snake,  by  M.  Messidor  Lebon  Petitot  (1794-). 
The  Luxembourg  also  contains  a  few  works  by 
deceased  sculptors.  We  find,  for  instance,  a  Vesta, 
by  Houdon  ;  a  Pomona,  by  Dupaty  (1771 — 1825)  ; 
a  bas-relief  of  France,  calling  her  children  to  her 
defence,  by  Moitte  (1746^1810)  ;  a  Son  of  Niobe, 
a  Psyche,  an  Atalanta,  by  the  Genevese  James 
Pradier  (1794 — 1852),  who  is  also  the  author  of  the 
Fontaine  Moliere  in  the  Rue  Richelieu  ;  and  lastly, 
the  Young  Fisher  Playing  with  a  Tortoise,  a 
Mercury,  and  a  Joan  of  Arc,  by  Frangois  Rude, 
who  is  famous  for  numerous  other  works,  such  as 
the  powerful  bas-relief  of  the  Arc  de  Triomphe  de 
V Etoile,  called  the  Departure,  or  the  Marseillaise. 
We  regret  not  meeting  with  a  single  work  in  the 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE. 


333 


Luxembourg  by  the  two  Rameys,  father  and  son  ; 
or  by  Foyatier,  author  of  the  celebrated  Spartacus 
of  the  Tuileries  ;  by  Charles  Simart ;  Dantan  the 
younger,    &c.     But   more   inexplicable   still   is   the 


is;»';ii.6ii.T,;.„i....i 1 

Fig.  6 1. —The  Marseillaise,  by  F.  Rude. 


absence  of  Pierre  Jean  David,  called  David  of 
Angers  (1789— 1856).  The  author  of  the  pediment 
of  the   Pantheon,    of   the  monument  Aux  grands 


334 


FRENCH  SCULP TUME 


honimcs  la  Patrie  Recoiinaissante,  of  the  statue  of 
P hilopccmcn  in  the  Tuileries,  of  Condi  at  Versailles, 
of  Corneille  at  Rouen,  of  La  Fayette  at  Washington, 
o{  Armand  Carrel  ^i  St.  Mande,  where  the  famous 
political  writer  was  killed,  and  of  the  busts  or 
medallions  of  all  the  contemporary  celebrities, 
ought  to  occupy  a  distinguished  place  in  the 
Museum  of  France,  especially  when  we   remember 


e-JfttfiaytXi 


■  t^TOV^  ^  /tf. 


Fig.  62. — Pediment  of  the  Pantheon,  by  David. 


that,  like  Puget  and  Poussin,  he  combined  great 
talent  with  a  noble  mind  and  an  independent 
spirit,  and,  like  his  illustrious  predecessors,  he  has 
left  an  example  of  a  stainless  life  from  birth  to 
death. 

To  carry  our  account  of  French  sculpture  down 
to  the  present  time  we  have  only  to  add  that 
MM.  Guillaume,  Perraud,  Carpeaux,  Crauk,  Fal- 
guiere,     Gumery,    Aime     Millet,     Thomas,     Paul 


FRENCH  SCULPTURE.  335 

Dubois,  &c.,  who  obtained  the  highest  distinctions 
at  the  Universal  Exhibition  of  1867,  have  main- 
tained their  art  on  a  level  with  that  of  French 
painting,  namely,  in  the  first  rank  amongst  all 
nations. 


AMERICAN    SCULPTURE. 


In  the  early  days  of  our  American  history,  al- 
though the  art  of  Painting  excited  a  considerable 
degree  of  enthusiasm,  there  was  no  corresponding 
interest  in  the  sister  art  of  Sculpture.  This  is, 
perhaps,  the  more  worthy  of  notice,  because  the 
early  men  were  not  indifferent  to  architecture, 
and  the  styles  of  architecture  which  pleased  them 
best  were  the  classic,  to  which,  statuary  is  pop- 
ularly supposed  to  be  a  natural  ornament.  Yet, 
while  buildings,  public  and  private,  in  the  style 
which  Wren  and  his  scholars  had  introduced  into 
England,  were  put  up  in  many  of  our  cities  and 
larger  towns  ;  and,  while  later,  the  fashion  pre- 
vailed all  over  the  country  of  erecting  Grecian  tem- 
ples to  serve  as  churches,  banks,  mints,  town  halls, 
and  dwellings  ;  yet  it  was  long  before  it  was 
proposed  to  adorn  any  one  of  these  buildings 
with  sculpture,  and  long  before  an  American  was 
born  who  showed  any  aptitude  for  making  stat- 
ues.    The  real  reason  of  this    neglect    is    to   be 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  337 

found  in  the  poverty  of  the  country.  The  build- 
ings that  we  have  referred  to,  although  they  were 
often  to  be  praised  for  a  certain  elegance  and 
dignity  —  the  result  of  harmonious  proportion 
and  simple  well-executed  details  of  ornamentation 
—  were  nevertheless  built  of  inexpensive  mate- 
rials, often  of  wood,  and,  when  costliest,  of  brick 
overlaid  with  stucco,  or  of  a  coarse-grained  mar- 
ble. But  statues  must  be  of  marble,  and  of  mar- 
ble fetched  from  over  seas  ;  and  when  the  labor 
of  the  sculptor  was  added  to  the  price  of  the 
material,  there  were  few  of  the  American  com- 
munities, hardly  here  and  there  an  individual 
citizen,  who  could  afford  the  luxury  of  giving 
commissions.  At  the  very  end  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, however,  the  influences  that  were  to  have 
the  first  shaping  of  sculpture  in  America  had 
begun  to  exert  themselves.  At  the  risk  of  seem- 
ing to  trifle  with  the  subject,  I  shall  mention 
Mrs.  Patience  Wright,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Lovell.  She  was  born  at  Bordentown,  New 
Jersey,  1725,  and  made  a  considerable  reputation 
both  at  home,  and  afterward  in  England,  as  a 
modeler  in  wax.  In  England,  she  made  like- 
nesses of  many  distinguished  people,  the  king, 
the  queen.  Lord  Chatham,  Temple,  Barre,  Wilkes, 
and  others.  Dunlap,  in  his  "  History  of  the  Arts 
of  Design  in  the  United  States,"  mentions  meeting 
22 


338  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

Mrs.  Wright  in  1784,  the  year  before  her  death. 
At  that  time  a  full-length  effigy  in  wax  of  Lord 
Chatham,  made  by  her,  was  standing  in  a  glass 
case  in  Westminster  Abbey.  She  seems  to  have 
been  an  artist  of  considerable  natural  talent, 
but  hard  circumstances,  the  want  of  early  instruc- 
tion in  art,  and  the  absence  of  an  art-atmos- 
phere, both  here  and  in  England,  made  her  inborn 
desire  a  barren  tree  that  bore  no  lasting  fruit. 
Her  exhibition  of  wax-work  figures  was,  we  be- 
lieve, the  predecessor  of  Madame  Tussaud's,  and 
was  reckoned  as  one  of  the  sights  of  London. 
Mrs.  Adams,  in  the  first  of  her  lively  letters 
written  from  England,  where  her  husband  was 
ambassador  to  the  Court  of  St.  James,  describes 
in  an  amusing  way  her  visit  to  Mrs.  Wright 
and  her  wax- work  ;  and,  later,  in  a  letter  from 
Philadelphia,  Mr.  Adams  himself  gives  his  wife 
an  account  of  some  of  the  pieces  which  had  been 
sent  over  from  England  to  this  country  to  be 
shown.  Thus  while  West, —  a  great  name  at 
that  time,  —  Trumbull,  and  Stuart,  and  Stuart 
Newton,  were  doing  us  honor  with  foreigners 
and  the  English,  in  the  art  of  painting,  Mrs. 
Wright  was  the  only  rival  we  had  to  offer  to 
Flaxman  and  NoUekens  in  sculpture.  It  was  a 
pity  that  she  should  have  been  more  thought 
of  by  the   public,  and  we  fear    she  was,'  than    a 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  339 

genius  like  Flaxman,  but  we  have  no  doubt  that 
she  much  better  deserved  the  name  of  statuary 
than  the  Hon.  Anne  Seymour  Darner,  of  whom 
flattering  Horace  Walpole  made,  or  tried  to  make, 
a  tenth  muse. 

The  next  sculptor  we  hear  of  in  America  was 
one  whose  fame  rests  mainly  upon  two  statues 
those  of  Washington  and  Voltaire,  each  of  which 
is  held  in  high  honor  in  the  city  for  which  it  was 
executed :  the  Washington  for  Baltimore,  the  Vol- 
taire for  Paris.  This  was  Houdon,  a  Frenchman, 
whom  Franklin  and  Jefferson  persuaded  to  come 
to  this  country  to  make  a  statue  of  Washington 
for  the  State  of  Virginia,  to  be  placed  in  the 
State  House  at  Richmond.  He  arrived  here  in 
1785,  and  visited  Mount  Vernon,  at  Washington's 
request,  where  he  took  measurements  of  Wash- 
ington's body,  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Madison. 
He  executed  a  bust  in  marble  of  the  General's 
head,  which  he  took  back  with  him  to  France, 
where  the  whole  figure  was  put  into  marble  from 
the  model  made  here.  With  this  statue,  which 
still  stands  in  the  State  House  at  Richmond,  and 
with  Stuart's  portrait,  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum, 
we  may  believe  we  have  the  means  of  judging 
how  Washington  looked  ;  all  contemporary  testi- 
mony is  unanimous  in  asserting  that  each  artist 
achieved  a  remarkable  portrait  of  his  illustrious 


340  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

subject.  Good  casts  from  Houdon's  statue  are  to 
be  seen  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington  and  in  the 
Boston  Athenaeum.  The  casts  from  the  head  alone 
are  very  common.  Houdon's  original  marble  bust 
was  for  a  time  in  the  possession  of  the  sculptor 
Henry  K.  Brown,  who  used  it  in  modeling  the 
head  of  his  equestrian  Washington,  in  Union 
Square,  New  York.  Mr.  Brown  afterward  sold  it 
to  Mr.  Hamilton  Fish,  who  still  owns  it. 

A  few  years  later  than  Houdon,  came  John 
Dixey,  an  Irishman  by  birth,  but  brought  up  in 
London,  where  he  was  a  student  at  the  Royal 
Academy,  and  he  was  among  those  selected  to 
be  sent  to  Italy  to  finish  their  studies.  But  he 
came  to  America  instead,  arriving  here  in  1789. 
He  was  elected  vice-president  of  the  Pennsylva- 
nia Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  in  18 10  or  18 12, 
but  he  seems  to  have  lived  chiefly  in  New  York. 
He  left  behind  him  no  work  of  any  importance 
so  far  as  we  can  learn  ;  indeed,  he  seems  to  have 
been  principally  occupied  in  ornamental  stone- 
cutting  and  in  wood-carving.  In  wood-carving, 
and  in  modeling  in  clay,  William  Rush,  of  Phil- 
adelphia, earned  considerable  local  reputation. 
He  was  born  in  1757,  and  died  in  1833. 

Next  to  Houdon  in  importance  was  another 
foreign  sculptor,  an  Italian  this  time,  though  well 
known   in   France  and   England  —  Giuseppe  Ce- 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  341 

racchi.  He  was  born  somewhere  about  1740,  in 
Rome,  and  was  employed  together  with  Canova 
in  designing  and  executing  sculpture  for  the  Pan- 
theon, He  left  Italy  for  England  in  1772,  and 
was  well  received,  says  Dunlap,  by  Reynolds,  who 
sat  to  him  for  his  bust,  and  he  became  the  teacher 
in  modeling  and  sculpture  of  Mrs.  Damer,  of 
whom  he  made  a  full  length  statue  as  the  Muse 
of  Sculpture.  But  though  called  upon  to  execute 
a  few  unimportant  works,  he  found  so  little  to  do  in 
England,  where  even  the  native  sculptors  earned 
their  bread  with  difficulty,  that  he  returned,  ac- 
cording to  some  accounts,  to  Rome,  and  resumed 
work  as  a  sculptor.  In  1 791,  he  came  to  Amer- 
ica, where  he  did  what  he  could  to  awaken  an  in- 
terest in  the  fine  arts,  uniting  himself  with  C.  W. 
Peale,  the  painter,  and  William  Rush,  the  carver 
in  wood,  in  an  abortive  attempt  to  establish  an 
Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts  in  Philadelphia.  He 
had  also  a  scheme  of  his  own  for  a  mountain  of 
allegory  which  he  would  pile  up  somewhere  in 
marble  in  honor  of  Liberty.  It  was  to  carry  out 
this  idea,  in  fact,  that  he  came  to  America;  but 
however  well  disposed  toward  his  scheme.  Con- 
gress had  not  the  money  necessary,  and  in  1 795 
Ceracchi  returned  to  Europe.  During  his  short 
stay  he  made  several  fine  busts.  One  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton,  now  in  the  possession  of  the 
statesman's  grandson,  is  deservedly  admired. 


342  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

Dunlap  praises  highly  Ceracchi's  bust  of  Wash- 
ington, which  was  purchased  of  the  artist  by  the 
Spanish  ambassador  as  a  present  for  his  king,  but 
he  not  caring  for  it,  it  remained  with  the  ambas- 
sador, of  whose  widow  Richard  Mead,  of  Phila- 
delphia, bought  it,  and  sent  it  back  to  America. 
Dunlap  speaks  also  of  a  bust  of  Jefferson,  which  he 
says  is  at  Monticello  ;  of  another  of  George  Clin- 
ton, the  governor  of  New  York,  and  of  busts  of  Paul 
Jones  and  John  Jay.  This  was  a  memorable  four 
years'  work,  and  Ceracchi  deserves  to  be  gratefully 
remembered  for  it.  His  after  history  is  a  melan- 
choly one.  He  became  fanatically  interested  in 
the  French  Revolution  ;  and  when  the  first  Napo- 
leon overthrew  liberty,  he  joined  himself  to  those 
men  who  determined  to  rid  the  land  of  him  by  as- 
sassination. He  was  accused  of  being  concerned 
in  the  plot  of  the  infernal  machine.  This  we  be- 
lieve is  doubtful ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt,  we 
fear,  that  he  had  plotted  a  more  disgraceful  crime, 
—  to  poniard  Napoleon  while  the  First  Consul  was 
sitting  to  him  for  his  bust.  But  he  was  arrested 
on  the  failure  of  the  infernal  machine,  and  was 
guillotined  in  i8oi. 

The  names  of  a  few  other  sculptors  who  came  to 
this  country  to  practice  their  art  may  be  here  set 
down,  not  because  the  work  they  left  behind  them 
is  of  much  importance,  but  because  they  no  doubt 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  343 

exerted  some  influence,  however  slight,  in  advan- 
cing the  general  culture.  A  bass-relief  in  the  Ro- 
tunda of  the  Capitol  at  Washington  is  signed  N. 
Gevelot,  1827.  The  subject  is  Penn  making  his 
treaty  with  the  Indians.  But  we  know  nothing 
more  of  this  sculptor.  Another  tablet  in  the  Ro- 
tunda is  signed  A.  Capellano,  1827.  The  subject 
is  Pocahontas  saving  Captain  Smith.  The  same 
sculptor  carved  the  bass-relief  in  the  pediment  of 
the  Capitol,  -^  a  bust  of  Washington  with  Peace  on 
one  side  and  Victory  on  the  other,  —  and  Dunlap 
ascribes  to  him  the  statue  on  the  column  of  the 
battle-monument  in  Baltimore,  and  the  bass-reliefs 
on  the  pedestal.  Two  other  bass-reliefs  in  the 
Rotunda  of  the  Capitol  are  signed  Enrico  Causici 
of  Verona,  but  without  the  date.  Dunlap  says  that 
it  was  he  made  the  Washington  for  the  monument 
at  Baltimore,  and  that  he  competed  for  the  prize 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  raised  by  sub- 
scription in  1 8 16,  for  a  model  of  a  statue  of  Wash- 
ington to  be  placed  in  the  Pennsylvania  Academy. 
The  model  was  set  up  in  the  park  in  1826.  Cau- 
sici called  himself  a  pupil  of  Canova,  but  he  ap- 
pears to  have  had  but  little  skill  in  his  art. 

In  1790  was  born  John  Frazee,  the  first  sculp- 
tor of  American  birth,  and  parentage.  He  was 
born  at  Rahway,  New  Jersey,  and  had  a  bitter  ex- 
perience of  life  in  his  early  years.     In   1815,  he 


344  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

lost  his  only  child,  a  son,  and  having  been  brought 
up  as  a  mason  and  stone-cutter,  he  attempted  to 
forget  his  grief  in  making  a  portrait  in  marble  of 
his  dead  child.  This  was  in  1815,  and  it  was  not 
until  1820  that  he  saw  a  statue,  and  even  then  his 
first  idea  of  what  could  be  done  in  sculpture  was 
gained  at  second  hand  by  a  sight  of  the  plaster 
casts  from  the  antique  sent  by  Napoleon  to  the 
New  York  Academy  of  the  Fine  Arts.  His  por- 
trait bust  of  his  child  procured  him  *an  introduc- 
tion to  Trumbull,  then  president  of  the  academy, 
who  graciously  informed  him  that  "  nothing  in 
sculpture  would  be  wanted  in  this  country  for  a 
hundred  years."  No  wonder  that  Frazee  ex- 
claimed, "  Is  such  a  man  fit  for  a  president  of  an 
academy  of  fine  arts  ! "  There  is  no  excuse  for 
Trumbull,  who  was  himself  an  artist,  but  it  is  worth 
remembering  that  about  the  same  time  (18 18)  a 
much  greater  and  a  clearer-headed  man,  John 
Adams,  wrote  to  Binon,  a  French  sculptor,  who 
applied  to  him  for  permission  to  take  his  portrait 
in  marble  :  "  The  age  of  sculpture  and  painting 
has  not  yet  arrived  in  this  country,  and  I  hope  it 
will  be  long  before  it  does  so.  I  would  not  give 
a  sixpence  for  a  picture  by  Raphael,  or  a  statue  by 
Phidias."  These  were  the  old  man's  words,  but 
his  acts  were  different.  He  invited  Binon  hospit- 
ably to  Quincy,  sat  to  him  for  his  bust,  and  showed 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  345 

real  kindness  by  consenting  at  his  advanced  age, 
to  have  a  mould  taken  of  his  face  in  plaster  —  a 
most  disagreeable  experience.  We  may  remark  in 
passing  that  Binon  made  a  very  characteristic  bust 
of  Adams,  which  is  now  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston. 
Trumbull  was  discouraging  to  artists  in  his  acts 
as  well  as  his  words,  and  Frazee  is  not  alone  in 
his  condemnation  of  his  manners.  Mr.  Frazee 
made,  according  to  Dunlap,  the  first  marble  bust 
by  a  native  hand.  It  was  of  John  Wells,  Esq., 
and  was  executed  from  imperfect  profiles,  after 
the  death  of  Mr.  Wells.  It  was  placed  in  Grace 
Church,  in  New  York.  He  gained  much  employ- 
ment by  this  commission,  and  made  busts  from 
the  life  of  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  Daniel  Web- 
ster, Dr.  Bowditch,  Jackson,  Jay,  and  judges 
Story  and  Prescott,  with  Thomas  H.  Perkins 
and  John  Lowell,  of  Boston.  In  1831,  Frazee  en- 
tered into  a  partnership  with  Robert  E.  Launitz, 
and  it  was  with  Launitz,  in  the  marble  yard  where 
he  and  Frazee  had  worked,  that  Crawford  first 
practiced  his  art. 

From  this  time,  the  names  thicken  of  Ameri- 
cans who  have  won  distinction  at  home  as  well  as 
abroad  in  the  difficult  art  of  sculpture.  In  the 
year  1805  were  born,  Horatio  Greenough  and 
Hiram  Powers, —  Powers  a  few  months  earlier  than 
Greenough,  —  two  men  who  have  exercised  a  very 


346  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE 

wide,  but  a  very  different,  influence  on  American 
art,  and  on  the  art  culture  of  Americans.  Ar- 
tist and  scholar,  Greenough  has  never  had  any 
equal  in  America.  Story  is  the  only  man  that 
can  be  compared  to  him,  but  Greenough  excelled 
Story  in  largeness  of  mind,  and  in  the  ardor  and 
energy  of  his  nature.  He  died  in  1852,  at  the 
ripe  age  of  forty-seven,  having  executed  com- 
paratively few  works,  but,  one  of  them  —  the 
Washington  of  the  Capitol  —  a  work  which  has 
given  him  a  place  at  the  head  of  American  sculp- 
tors, among  all  who  are  accustomed  to  judge  of 
the  productions  of  art  by  the  success  with  which 
they  unite  intellectual  or  moral  qualities  with  that 
beauty  of  line  and  form  which,  with  many,  is  reck- 
oned the  only  legitimate  object  of  the  artist.  It 
must  always  be  remembered  in  looking  at  this 
statue,  that  it  was  designed  by  the  sculptor,  to  be 
placed  in  the  centre  of  the  Rotunda,  and  that  it 
is  seen  to  great  disadvantage  in  its  present  posi- 
tion in  the  open  air.  When  Greenough  learned 
that  the  statue  was  to  be  removed  from  the  place 
for  which  he  had  intended  it,  he  wrote  :  "  Had  I 
been  ordered  to  make  a  statue  for  any  square,  or 
similar  situation  at  the  metropolis,  I  should  have 
represented  Washington  on  horseback,  and  in  his 
actual  dress.  I  would  have  made  my  work  purely 
an   historical    one.     I    have    treated    the    subject 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  347 

poetically,  and  confess  I  should  feel  pain  at  see- 
ing it  placed  in  direct  and  flagrant  contrast  with 
every-day  life.  Moreover,  I  modeled  the  figure 
without  reference  to  an  exposure  to  rain  and  frost, 
so  that  there  are  many  parts  of  the  statue  where 
the  water  would  collect  and  disintegrate  and  rot 
the  stone,  if  it  did  not  by  freezing,  split  off  large 
fragments  of  the  drapery."  The  fears  expressed 
by  the  sculptor  in  this  modest  statement  are  seen 
to-day  to  be  fully  justified,  as  the  weather  is  tell- 
ing seriously  upon  the  statue  year  after  year.  Be- 
fore long  it  will  begin  to  show  cruel  signs  of  the 
power  of  rain  and  frost.  It  ought  to  be  restored 
to  its  original  place  under  the  dome ;  and  if  our 
American  artists  have  the  sense  we  believe  they 
have  of  the  merits  both  of  the  work  itself  and  of 
the  man  who  made  it,  they  will  unite  in  a  petition 
to  Congress,  to  have  Green ough's  earnest  wish  in 
the  matter  carried  out,  even  at  this  late  day. 

The  statue  of  Washington  is  a  colossal  sitting 
figure,  nearly  twice  the  size  of  life.  The  head, 
chest,  arms,  and  feet  are  bare,  the  lower  limbs 
covered  with  drapery,  which  is  brought  up  over 
the  right  arm.  Washington  with  his  right  arm 
points  upwards,  while  with  his  left  he  holds  out  a 
Roman  sword,  the  action  being  symbolical  of  his 
resignation  of  his  commission,  and  of  his  recom- 
mendation   of  his  countrymen   to   the    care    and 


348  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

guidance  of  God.  The  chair  in  which  the  hero  is 
seated  is  of  a  grand  design,  the  back  of  open 
work  is  an  antique  pattern,  the  sides  carved  with 
bass  rehefs  of  the  infant  Hercules  stranghng  the 
serpent,  and  of  Apollo  guiding  the  chariot  of  the 
sun.  One  end  of  the  back  of  the  chair,  where  it 
rises  above  the  sides,  is  supported  by  a  statue  of 
Columbus  contemplating  a  globe  which  he  holds 
in  his  hand  ;  the  other  end  has  for  support  an  In- 
dian chief.  The  whole  is  executed  in  the  finest 
Carrara  marble,  and  with  the  most  admirable 
workmanship.  Greenough  made  another  statue 
for  the  Capitol  which  he  called  "  The  Rescue." 
It  stands  at  the  head  of  the  steps  leading  to  the 
eastern  entrance  of  the  Capitol,  and  opposite  the 
statue  of  Columbus,  made  in  1844  by  an  Italian,  L. 
Persico.  It  typifies  the  conflict  between  the  Amer- 
ican and  the  Indian,  by  the  rescue  of  a  woman 
and  infant  from  the  tomahawk  of  a  savage,  by  a 
brawny  hunter.  To  Greenough  must  be  given  the 
credit  of  having  been  the  first  American  to  exe- 
cute a  group  in  marble  —  "  The  Chanting  Cher- 
ubs " —  and  it  is  pleasant  to  associate  with  this 
most  beautiful  work  the  name  of  Fenimore  Cooper, 
who  both  suggested  the  design,  and  gave  Green- 
ough the  commission  to  execute  it.  The  story 
is,  that  the  daughters  of  Mr.  Cooper  were  engaged 
in  copying  a  print  after  the  picture  in  the  Pitti 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  349 

Palace  —  the    Madonna   del    Trono  —  which    is 
attributed   to    Raphael.      In  the   foreground   are 
two    cherubs,    similar   to  those  in    the  Madonna 
di  Foligno,  who  are  singing  from  an  open  book 
which  they  hold  in  their  hands.     Cooper    asked 
Greenough  whether  he  did  not  find  the  cherubs 
well  suited  for  reproduction  in  marble  ;  and  Green- 
ough  cordially  assenting,  the  commission  to  execute 
the  design  was  given.     It  must  not  be  supposed, 
however,  that  the  little  group  is  a  servile  copy  of 
the  figures  in  the  picture.     The  idea  is  borrowed, 
but  Greenough,  in  rendering  it  in  marble,  has  in- 
fused into  it  a  most  tender  and  feeling  beauty  born 
of  his  own  nature.     We  cannot  do  better  than  to 
quote  the  late  Henry  T.  Tuckerman's  description 
of  this  group,^  which  gives  a  very  clear   idea  of 
a  work  that,  both  on  account  of  its  intrinsic  beauty 
as  well  of  execution  as  of  design,  and  of  its  his- 
toric importance  as  the  first  group  of  statuary  by 
an    American    hand,   deserves    to   be   placed   in 
some   important  public   collection.     "The    scope 
of  the  work,"  says  Mr.  Tuckerman,  "  is  obviously 
hmited.     It  consists  merely  of  two  nude  cherubs. 
Yet  a  careful  scrutiny  will  reveal  those  niceties  of 
execution  which  proclaim  the  true  artist.     One  of 

1  7^e  Book  of  the  Artists.  American  Artist  Life.  By  Henry 
T.  Tuckerman.  New  York,  George  P.  Putnam  &  Sons,  1867,  p. 
256. 


350  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

the  figures  is  planted  on  its  little  feet,  and  its  posi- 
tion is  upright ;  his  bosom  heaves  with  a  gentle 
exultation,  as  if  inspired  by  the  song  ;  his  com- 
panion, quite  as  beautiful,  is  slightly  awed  ;  one 
has  ringlets  that  suggest  more  strength  than  the 
smooth  flowing  hair  of  his  brother,  whose  face  is 
also  longer  and  more  spiritual  and  subdued  ;  he  is 
more  up-looking,  less  self-sustained.  A  most  true 
and  delicate  principle  of  contrast,  is  thus  unfolded 
in  the  two  forms  and  faces.  The  celestial  and  the 
child-like  are  blended  ;  we  realize,  as  we  gaze,  the 
holiness  of  infant  beauty  ;  a  peaceful,  blessed  charm 
seems  wafted  from  the  infantile  forms,  whose  con- 
tour and  expression  are  alive  with  innocent,  sacred, 
and,  as  it  were,  magnetic  joy."  This  group  having 
been  long  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Cooper,  passed 
afterwards  into  the  hands  of  the  late  John  L. 
Stephens,  with  whose  family  we  believe  it  still  re- 
mains. 

Hiram  Powers  was  born  in  Woodstock,  Ver- 
mont, July  29,  1805.  His  family  emigrated  from 
Vermont  to  western  New  York,  and  thence  to 
Ohio.  His  early  life  was  passed  in  a  variety  of 
employments,  chiefly  mechanical ;  every  sculptor 
is  a  mechanic  by  nature,  his  art  is  the  child  of 
Vulcan  and  Venus  ;  and  he  gained  experience  as  a 
collector  of  debts,  as  keeper  of  a  reading-room,  in 
tending  a  steam-engine,  and  as  workman  in  a  clock 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  351 

factory.  Afterwards  a  talent  for  modeling  develop- 
ing itself  in  him,  he  was  engaged  by  the  owner 
of  a  show  to  make  wax  figures  for  it,  and  these 
were  so  clever  that  the  exhibition  gained  a  great 
local  repute.  Still  later  Powers  made  and  exhib- 
ited a  horrible  spectacle  called  the  "  Infernal  Re- 
gions," in  which  he  combined  his  mechanical  turn 
with  his  artistic  skill  ;  and  with  dancing  devils, 
advancing  and  retreating  demons,  grim  skeletons, 
and  the  sheeted  dead,  made  the  not  over  particular 
hair  of  western  backwoods  audiences  stand  on  end- 
This  was  not  a  very  promising  beginning,  and  it 
must  be  confessed  that  Powers'  art  has  always 
savored  more  of  the  mechanical  and  the  sensa- 
tional than  of  the  purely  artistic  ;  but  he  did  hon- 
estly and  energetically  what  he  found  to  do  ;  and 
when  he  had  once  found  out  that  there  was  an  art 
of  sculpture,  he  labored  long  and  earnestly  accord- 
ing to  his  gift,  to  win  a  high  place  in  the  field. 
He  has  long  enjoyed  a  reputation  that  we  cannot 
believe  time  will  confirm,  as  the  first  of  Ameri- 
can sculptors.  That  must  be  the  reward  of  the  ar- 
tist who  can  produce  the  noblest  ideal  work  ;  it 
can  never  be  earned  by  the  making  of  busts,  how- 
ever fine  ;  and  some  of  Powers'  busts  are  among 
the  finest  made  in  modern  times.  His  "  Greek 
Slave "  once  enjoyed  a  fame  that  seems  aston- 
ishing to  those  who  look  back  upon  it ;  but  we 


352  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

must  remember  that  it  came  for  judgment  to  a 
public  full  of  honorable  enthusiasm  for  the  work 
of  its  native  artist,  but  very  ignorant  of  art,  be- 
cause it  had  never  seen  a  masterpiece.  His  bust 
of  Proserpine  is  the  best  result  of  his  search  for 
the  ideal ;  but  his  final  reputation  will  not  be  made 
up  from  a  consideration  of  any  of  the  once  eulo- 
gized, now  forgotten  marbles,  the  Greek  Slave,  the 
Fisher  Boy,  the  Eve,  the  America,  California,  Pen- 
seroso  ;  it  will  rest,  we  venture  to  think,  entirely 
upon  a  few  manly  and  characteristic  busts. 

In  1810,  Joel  T.  Hart  was  born.  He  is  a  native 
of  Kentucky,  and  has  resided  since  1849  in  Flor- 
ence. He  made  a  statue  of  Henry  Clay,  which  is 
in  Louisville,  in  his  native  State,  and  he  has  also 
designed  several  ideal  figures,  none  of  them  of 
any  great  value  as  contributions  to  art ;  but  showing 
careful  study  of  the  human  form,  and  considerable 
skill  in  the  mechanics  of  his  profession.  He  has 
invented  a  clever  machine  by  which  the  labor  of 
transferring  the  model  to  marble  will  be  greatly 
lightened. 

Three  years  later  Thomas  Crawford  was  born  in 
New  York,  March  22,  1813.  Crawford's  work  is 
of  considerable  importance,  and  if  it  must  be  con- 
ceded that  he  worked  too  fast,  and  that  much  of 
his  production  is  marked  by  too  superficial  thought, 
yet  it  must  also  be  acknowledged  that,  like  Green- 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  353 

ough  —  though  with  far  inferior  mental  and  artis- 
tic   power  —  he  was  a  worshipper  of  the  poetry 
of  his  art  ;  busts  and  portraits  were  the  drudgery 
of  the  studio  ;  he  wanted  to  put  ideas  into  marble, 
a  high  aim,  but  sometimes  dangerously  alluring  the 
artist  into   regions  where  he  cannot  travel  with 
profit  to  himself  or  the  world.     Crawford  began  to 
work  in    the   marble    yard    of  Launitz,  who    had 
been  the  partner  in  business  of  Frazee.     He  then 
went  to  Italy,  where  the  good  Thorwaldsen,  who 
encouraged  everybody,  helped  him  with  cheerful 
auguries ;  and   with    earnest   study   of    the   best 
models,   and  close  application,  he   fitted   himself 
to  bring  all  his  powers  into  play  in  his  chosen  pro- 
fession.    Greenough  had  learned  modeling  of  Bi- 
non^  a  Frenchman  who    resided   a  long  time   in 
Boston,  and  of  whom  we  have  already  spoken  as 
the   author  of  a  bust   of  John    Adams.     Powers 
was  taught  by  a  German,  a  mechanic  rather  than 
an  artist.     Crawford  was  the  first  American  who 
had   a  thorough   training  from    the   start,  and    it 
stood  him  in  good  stead.     One  of  his  first  works, 
the  Orpheus   descending  into  Hell  to  seek  Eury- 
dice,  now  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum,  was,  we  believe, 
a  commission  from  Charles  Sumner,  who  always 
cherished  a  lively  interest  in  the  work  of  his  pro- 
t6g6.     It  is  to  our  thinking  —  all  deductions  made 
for    the  defects  in  execution   of   a  first  youthful 
23 


354  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

work  —  one  of  Crawford's  most  original  and  poetic 
statues.  Next  to  it,  perhaps,  comes  one  made  much 
later,  the  Indian  Chief,  which  makes  part  of  the 
group  in  the  pediment  of  the  Capitol  at  Washing- 
ton, and  of  which  a  repetition  is  in  the  New  York 
Historical  Society  building.  This  is  the  figure 
which  Gibson,  the  English  sculptor,  admired  so 
much  that  he  proposed  it  should  be  cast  in  bronze 
and  set  up  as  a  monument  to  Crawford  in  Rome. 
Crawford's  work  at  Washington  comprises,  with 
the  exception  of  the  Equestrian  Washington  at 
Richmond,  and  the  Beethoven  of  the  Music  Hall, 
Boston,  his  principal  performance.  We  have  there 
the  pediment  of  one  of  the  Capitol  wings,  with  its 
rather  incongruous  assemblage  of  allegorical  realis- 
tic figures,  typifying,  perhaps,  the  growth  of  Amer- 
ican civilization,  but  in  a  disconnected,  alphabetic 
fashion.  The  separate  figures  are  conceived  in  a 
manly,  free  spirit,  and  make  allegory  as  tolerable 
as  it  can  be  made.  There  are  the  School-master 
and  the  School-boy,  the  Merchant,  the  Woodman, 
the  Indian  Hunter,  and  the  Sailor  ;  each  is  doing 
what  he  pleases,  and  necessarily  careless  of  the 
occupation  of  the  others.  This  is  not  to  make  a 
group  for  a  pediment,  it  is  merely  to  force  statues 
into  a  given  space,  and  lacking  the  necessary 
unity  of  idea,  and  the  moral  as  well  as  the  artistic 
connection  of  the  assembled  personages,  it  must  be 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  355 

admitted  a  failure  as  a  pediment.  Nor  can  we  say- 
much  in  praise  of  the  much  criticised  "  Liberty  " 
that  crowns  the  dome  of  the  Capitol.  This  is  a 
heavy,  unmeaning  figure,  rendered  still  more  un- 
graceful and  incongruous  by  the  helmet  adopted, 
after  much  discussion,  by  the  artist  as  a  substitute 
for  the  Cap  of  Liberty  with  which  he  had  originally 
covered  the  head  of  the  goddess,  but  with  which 
Jefferson  Davis,  then  Secretary  of  War,  was  discon- 
tented. There  can  be  but  little  doubt,  we  should 
think,  that  both  on  artistic  and  moral  grounds  the 
secretary  was  wrong.  He  had  a  show  of  sense  in 
his  argument,  that  the  liberty  cap  was  not  a  fit 
emblem  for  a  people  who  had  been  born  free,  and 
who  had  never  been  enslaved  ;  but  the  liberty  cap 
is  an  accepted  type,  and  could  hardly  have  been 
misunderstood,  while  its  simple  form  makes  it  very 
effective  in  the  hands  of  the  artist.  At  all  events 
the  substitute  adopted  has  a  very  uncouth  effect. 
It  is  a  combination  of  an  eagle's  head  and  a  bold 
arrangement  of  feathers,  but  it  has  neither  mean- 
ing nor  artistic  beauty. 

Crawford  died  in  London,  October  i6,  1857, 
in  his  forty-fourth  year.  The  cause  of  his  death 
was  a  tumor  that  formed  on  the  inner  side  of  the 
orbit  of  the  eye.  His  remains  were  brought  to 
America  and  buried  in  Greenwood  Cemetery,  De- 
cember 5,  1857.     He  left  the  carrying  out  of  his 


356  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

unfinished  works  to  his  friend  and  fellow-sculptor, 
Randolph  Rogers,  and  on  the  return  of  Mrs.  Craw- 
ford to  Italy,  she  offered  the  entire  collection  of 
casts  from  her  husband's  sculptures  to  any  insti- 
tution in  America,  that  would  pay  for  bringing 
them  from  Italy,  and  would  agree  to  put  them  in  a 
suitable  building  for  free  exhibition.  This  has 
since  been  done  by  the  Commissioners  of  the  Cen- 
tral Park,  who  have  arranged  the  casts  in  the 
chapel  of  what  was  once  the  Convent  of  Mt.  St. 
Vincent.  The  casts  are  too  crowded  in  their  pres- 
ent situation  to  be  well  seen,  but  when  the  newly 
projected  building  for  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts  is 
finished  they  will  be  more  fairly  treated.  Seen 
thus,  collected  into  one  room,  crowded  together 
and  badly  lighted,  they  yet  give  the  impression  of 
a  decided  talent  in  the  sculptor,  of  a  vigorous  mind 
trying  earnestly  to  express  itself  in  various  direc- 
tions, but  nowhere  satisfying  either  itself  or  us. 
Certainly,  we  look  in  vain  among  all  these  figures 
for  one  that  will  dwell  in  the  memory.  It  is  mel- 
ancholy to  record  that  so  much  enthusiasm,  such 
high-hearted  endeavor,  such  love  of  his  art,  should 
have  left  so  little  that  will  make  the  sculptor's 
name  dear  to  the  coming  time.  What  is  good, 
endures,  however,  and  there  are  qualities  in  some 
of  the  works  of  Crawford,  that  will  be  respected  to 
the  end,  though  the  verdict  on  his  collective  per- 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  3o7 

formance  should  fall  short,  as  we  think  it  surely 
will,  of  the  high  estimate  his  friends  have  placed 
upon  it. 

Henry  Kirke  Brown  was  born  at  Leyden,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1 8 14,  a  year  later  than  Crawford.  He 
was  drawn  first  to  painting  by  I  know  not  what 
influence,  and  when  eighteen  years  old  went  to 
Boston  to  study  with  Chester  Harding,  with  whom 
he  stayed  three  years,  but,  as  Tuckerman  tells  us, 
while  modeling  the  head  of  a  lady,  he  found  he 
liked  sculpture  better,  and  henceforth  gave  his 
time  almost  exclusively  to  that  art.  He  is  how- 
ever, so  essentially  an  artist  that  his  giving  him- 
self up  to  sculpture  was  rather  a  concession,  in- 
stinctive, probably,  and  unconscious,  to  the  public 
opinion  that  demands  a  man  should  be  one  thing 
and  stick  to  it,  than  such  a  decided  preference  for 
that  particular  form  of  art  as  would  make  it  impos- 
sible for  him  to  express  himself  in  any  other  way 
than  by  statue-carving.  For  Brown  is  an  excel- 
lent painter,  having  produced  several  pictures  — 
particularly  some  portraits  of  horses  —  that  show 
he  might  have  made  himself  a  name  with  his  brush, 
and  he  has  the  making  of  a  good  architect  in  him 
beside,  and  is  at  home  in  almost  all  the  mechanic 
arts.  In  1837,  being  then  twenty-three  years  old, 
he  went  to  Cincinnati  with  Dr.  Willard  Parker, 
under  whom  he  had  been  studying  anatomy,  and 


358  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

it  was  there  he  made  his  first  marble  bust.     In 
1840,  he  returned  to  the  east,  and  divided  two 
years  between  Albany  and  Troy.     This  was  a  busy 
time,  for  we  learn  from  Tuckerman  that  in  those 
two  years  he  made  forty  busts,  beside  other  work. 
In  1842,  he  left  America  for  Italy,  and  remained 
there   for    four   years,  returning   home    in    1846. 
While  in  Italy,  he  did  much  work  for  private  per- 
sons —  statues,  mostly  of  the  ideal  sort,  "  Adonis," 
"  David,"  "  Ruth,"  "  Rebecca,"  of  which  the  pub- 
lic knows  little,  and  which  doubtless  had  no  es- 
sential reason  for  being  ;    no  reason  of  any  sort, 
except   the    money-making  one,  the   root  out  of 
which  most  modern  statuary  springs,  and  which 
sets  most  young  sculptors  at  work.     Brown,  how- 
ever, was  not  to  remain  long  tied  to  such  perform- 
ances ;   the  real  is  his  chosen  field  ;  the  real  and 
the  present ;    and  it   is  there    that  he  has  made 
his  reputation.     After  his  return  to  America  he 
lived  for  some  time  in  Brooklyn,  and  it  was  in  his 
studio  there  that  the  statue  of  Washington,  now 
in  Union  Square,  was  modeled,  and    the  bronze 
chiseled    and    set   up  after  having   been  cast   at 
Chicopee.    This  statue  first  made  Brown  known  to 
the  general   public,  and  gave  him  that  place  as 
chief  American  sculptor  which,  up  to  this  time,  he 
easily  holds.    It  is  a  noble  monumental  work,  sim- 
ple in  conception,  resting  in  the  truth,  the  sculp- 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  359 

tor's  aim,  and  satisfying  the  eye  from  whatever 
point  of  view.  It  is  not  a  mere  correct  perfunc- 
tory performance,  but,  lively  and  full  of  fire,  the 
horse  a  strong  high-mettled  beast,  looked  at  with 
pleasure  daily  by  horse-loving  and  horse-knowing 
men  and  boys,  the  rider  a  hero  not  of  the  stage  or 
the  circus-ring,  but  of  history  and  common  sense. 
The  artist  contemplating  this  work  without  prej- 
udice, acknowledges  its  kinship  with  Verocchio's 
CoUeoni  and  Donatello's  Gattemelata.  I  may  re- 
mark in  passing  that  Mr.  Tuckerman's  statement 
("Book  of  the  Artists,"  p.  575),  that  "it  (the  stat- 
ue) was  projected  by  Horatio  Greenough,  who 
was  to  have  undertaken  it  with  Brown,  but  finally 
abandoned  the  enterprise  alter  having  efficiently 
])romoted  the  enterprise,"  is  founded  on  an  entire 
misunderstanding,  for  which,  however,  there  is  no 
excuse,  since  the  writer  had  only  to  have  made  a 
slight  examination  to  have  discovered  the  facts. 
Mr.  Greenough  had  nothing  whatever  to  do  either 
with  projecting  the  statue,  or  with  promoting  the 
subscription,  nor  was  he  to  have  undertaken  it 
with  Brown.  Mr.  Lee  projected  the  statue  and 
secured  all  the  subscriptions.  The  work  was 
offered  in  the  first  place  to  Mr.  Brown  alone  ;  after- 
ward, a  proposition  was  made  to  him  to  admit  Mr. 
Greenough,  for  whom  he  had  an  affectionate  admi- 
ration, to  a  sort  of  artist  partnership  ;  but,  such  a 


360  AMERTCAX  SCULPTURE. 

partnership,  hardly  Hkely  to  prosper  under  any 
circumstances,  was  made  impossible  in  this  affair 
by  Mr.  Greenough's  mental  condition.  He  be- 
haved in  a  manner  so  unaccountable,  that  Mr. 
Brown  withdrew  from  the  enterprise,  but  in  a  few 
weeks  it  appeared  that  Greenough's  conduct,  so 
inconsistent  with  his  noble  and  generous  nature, 
utterly  unselfish,  and  free  from  mercenary  taint, 
was  sadly  explicable.  A  few  weeks  later  he  was 
carried  to  an  asylum  for  the  insane,  where  he 
shortly  after  died. 

Another  fine  statue  by  Brown,  though  belong- 
ing to  an  earlier  period,  is  the  recumbent  figure 
of  the  late  Shippen  Bird  in  St.  Stephen's  Church, 
in  Philadelphia.  I  have  never  seen  another  statue 
of  this  class  that  seemed  to  me  so  perfectly  to 
render  the  beauty  of  death.  Hundreds  of  people 
go  every  year  to  this  church  to  look  at  the  fine 
group  by  Steinhauser,  in  memory  of  the  children 
of  Mr.  Bird,  who  pass  Brown's  statue  with  slight 
notice.  Something  of  this  neglect  is,  no  doubt, 
owing  to  its  unsuitable  position,  but  its  simplicity 
and  the  quiet  voice  with  which  it  speaks  to  the 
passer-by  has  also  much  to  do  with  it.  Brown's 
latest  statue,  the  General  Scott,  is  soon  to  be  set 
up  in  Washington,  an  event  on  which  we  congrat- 
ulate the  Capitol  and  all  lovers  of  Art.  The 
statue  of  General   Greene,  for  which   Brown  re- 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  361 

ceived  the  commission  from  the  State  of  Rhode 
Island,  is  at  present  in  the  old  Representatives 
Hall,  in  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  where  one  should 
go  who  wishes  to  see  how  like  a  magnet  a  free 
and  royal  work  of  art  draws  all  beholders,  and 
blots  out  of  existence  a  room  full  of  mediocrities 
or  worse.  We  leave  out  of  this  condemnation  the 
plaster  cast  of  Houdon's  Washington,  and  a  figure 
of  Roger  Williams,  by  Simmons,  which  latter  is 
a  respectable  work  in  point  of  execution  and 
pose,  though  unsatisfactory  as  a  conception  of  the 
founder  of  Rhode  Island.  No  one  who  has  seen 
the  statue  of  General  Greene  will  question,  we 
should  think,  that  it  is  one  of  the  finest  statues  of 
our  time;  it  rejoices  every  beholder.  In  1858, 
Mr.  Brown  received  a  commission  from  the  State 
of  South  Carolina  to  make  a  group  of  thirteen 
figures  for  the  pediment  of  the  State-house  to  be 
built  at  Columbia.  While  the  sculptor  was  en- 
gaged upon  the  work,  having  gone  to  Columbia 
with  his  wife,  to  carry  out  the  commission  on  the 
spot,  the  War  of  Secession  broke  out,  and  the 
work  was  interrupted  when  near  completion. 
When  Columbia  was  burnt,  the  State-house  went 
to  destruction  with  the  rest,  and  all  the  finished 
statues,  with  all  the  studies,  casts,  drawings,  and, 
indeed,  the  greater  part  of  Brown's  possessions  in 
this  world,  were  destroyed  at  the  same  time.    Pros- 


3G2  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

trated  by  a  serious  illness,  in  nearly  ruined  cir- 
cumstances, and  in  an  enemy's  country,  many  a 
man  would  have  lost  heart  and  hope,  but  Brown 
is  of  too  male  a  strain  for  that.  He  came  back 
to  the  North,  and  took  up  life  again  where  he  had 
left  it,  with  that  strong  serenity,  that  quiet  con- 
fidence, that  silent  delight  in  work,  that  make  his 
name  mean  what  it  does  to  those  who  know  him. 

Henry  Dexter,  whose  work  does  not  need  the 
recommendation  that  it  is  produced  by  a  man 
who  never  had  the  least  instruction,  who  never 
saw  a  sculptor  strike  a  blow  on  a  block  of  mar- 
ble, and  who  never  had  an  assistant,  but  has  done 
everything  with  his  own  hands  —  is  one  of  the 
best  of  our  sculptors  in  his  special  branch  of  por- 
traiture ;  we  owe  to  him  a  large  number  of  busts 
of  well-known  Americans  —  strong,  individual, 
truthful  work,  which  will  long  keep  in  memory  the 
sculptor,  and  the  men  and  women  who  have  sat  to 
him.  The  well-known  Binney  monument  in  Mt. 
Auburn  Cemetery,  the  recumbent  figure  of  the 
little  child  who  lies  buried  beneath,  is  the  best 
known  of  Mr.  Dexter's  works.  As  our  cities 
grew  in  size,  and  the  people,  used  to  taking 
holiday  in  the  suburbs,  began  to  find  themselves 
cut  off  from  their  walks  and  drives  by  the  en- 
croaching shops  and  houses,  there  sprang  up  first 
in    Boston,    then    in    Philadelphia,    last    in   New 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  363 

York,  the  fashion  of  great  public  cemeteries,  the 
sad  forerunners  of  our  later  parks.  The  first 
of  these  was  Mt.  Auburn,  and  it  soon  became  a 
great  resort.  It  was  a  spot  of  considerable  nat- 
ural beauty,  and  it  was  skillfully  laid  out  in  walks 
and  drives.  Some  of  the  earlier  monuments  were 
remarkable  for  the  good  taste  displayed  in  them, 
and  gained  much  local  fame.  The  tomb  of  the 
celebrated  Spurzheim  was  a  careful  copy  of  the 
tomb  of  Scipio ;  the  tomb  of  one  branch  of 
the  Appleton  family  was  a  delicately  designed 
Greek  temple,  made  in  Italy  of  the  finest  white 
marble,  and  was  called  "  The  House  of  Death," 
but  the  marble  figure  of  the  little  Binney  child, 
lying  in  a  sweet  and  peaceful  slumber,  was  the 
chief  attraction  to  the  greater  number  of  vis- 
itors. Not  only  was  it  the  first  marble  statue 
placed  in  Mt.  Auburn,  but  it  was,  we  believe,  the 
first  statue  made  in  the  United  States,  by  an 
American  who  had  never  been  abroad.  One  who 
in  boyish  days  has  often  visited  the  cemetery  for 
the  pleasure  of  seeing  that  statue,  thinks  of  the 
place  always  as  the  green  home  of  that  little  child, 
the  baby-leader  of  the  great  company  that  has 
since  come  to  share  its  pleasant  resting-place. 
Henry  Dexter  was  born  in  the  town  of  Cazenovia, 
in  the  part  now  called  Nelson,  Madison  County, 
New  York,  on  the  nth  of  October,  1806.     When 


364  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

he  was  twelve  years  old,  his  father  died,  and  his 
mother  and  sisters  went  to  live  in  Connecticut. 
The  boy  had  the  usual  training  :  went  to  school- 
in  the  winter,  and  worked  on  a  farm  in  the  sum- 
mer. His  mother  wanted  to  make  him  a  minister  ; 
her  friends  pushed  him  to  a  trade,  and  succeeded 
in  getting  him  apprenticed  to  a  blacksmith.  Never 
was  a  more  striking  instance  of  the  impossibility 
of  driving  out  Nature,  who  yielded  no  more  to  the 
Connecticut  forge-hammer  than  of  old  to  the 
Roman  pitchfork.  We  cannot  here  tell  Dexter's 
story  at  length,  but  it  is  good  to  read  in  his  own 
words,  in  Tuckerman's  book.  Francis  Alexander, 
the  portrait-painter  whose  own  experience  in  youth 
had  been  hard  enough,  was  Dexter's  earliest  ad- 
viser and  helper  —  not  a  flattering  friend,  rather 
chilling  and  depressing  than  encouraging,  until  he 
saw  the  boy's  steadfast  temper  and  firm  will ;  then 
he  did  his  best  to  open  a  way  for  him.  The  first 
bust  he  made  in  marble  was  that  of  the  Hon. 
Samuel  Eliot.  At  that  time  Dexter  had  never 
handled  a  block  of  marble,  and  had  no  one  to  show 
him  how  to  go  to  work.  But  he  bought  the  mar- 
ble, and  when  the  bust  was  finished,  not  knowing 
its  value,  he  left  the  payment  to  Mr.  Eliot,  who 
generously  gave  him  two  hundred  dollars  for  it, 
and  afterward  added  fifty  dollars  more.  This,  says 
the  modest  artist,  was  the  way  I  became  a  sculp- 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  365 

tor.  In  1859,  ^^-  Defter  formed  the  design  of 
making  the  busts  of  the  President  and  of  all  the 
Governors  who  were  in  office  on  the  ist  of  January, 
i860.  To  make  his  studies,  he  was  obliged  to 
visit  all  the  States  except  California  and  Oregon, 
but,  difficult  as  the  undertaking  was,  it  was  brought 
to  a  good  ending,  and  when  all  the  busts  were  set 
up  in  the  Rotunda  of  the  Boston  State  House, 
thirty  thousand  people,  says  Tuckerman,  went  to 
see  them.  If  they  are  all  as  fine  as  the  bust  of 
the  late  Mr.  Felton,  or  as  that  of  Chief-Justice 
Chase,  we  must  think  the  thirty  thousand  people 
saw  a  very  uncommon  sight.  Mr.  Dexter,  now 
in  his  sixty-sixth  year,  has  his  studio  in  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts,  and  is  still  actively  work- 
ing. 

Erastus  D.  Palmer,  was  born  in  Pompey,  Onon- 
daga County,  New  York,  April  2,  18 17.  His 
parents  were  farming  people,  but  the  boy  had  a 
strong  bent  to  mechanical  arts  ;  was  "  born  with  a 
thumb,"  as  the  country  people  say,  and  went  out 
into  the  world  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  to  find  em- 
ployment as  a  carpenter.  He  worked  long  at  this 
trade,  and  in  the  small  leisure  that  steady  employ- 
ment gave  him,  tried  his  hand  at  cutting  on  a  shell 
a  cameo  portrait  of  his  wife.  Even  in  this  first 
effort  of  an  untried  hand,  the  artist  was  discov- 
ered, and  he  soon  found  that  more  people  were 


366  AMETHCAN  SCULPTURE. 

eager  to  have  his  cameos,  than  he  had  strength  of 
eyes  to  serve.  For,  in  two  years,  the  incessant 
application  to  a  labor  that  demanded  absolute 
steadiness  of  eye,  so  wearied  that  delicate  organ 
as  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  give  up  his  cameo- 
cutting.  "  Good,"  said  one  who  heard  of  it ;  "  we 
shall  now  have  a  sculptor  in  exchange  for  a  maker 
of  brooches  ! "  And,  in  fact,  Palmer,  with  energy 
and  longings  for  art  not  to  be  thwarted,  took  up 
modeling  in  clay,  and  soon  after  produced  a  small 
work  in  marble,  "  The  Infant  Ceres."  This  was 
the  beginning  of  a  long  prosperity,  for  Palmer's 
work  was  popular  from  the  first,  and  the  pleasure 
taken  by  the  people  in  his  statues  and  bas-reliefs, 
has  never  flagged.  "  The  Infant  Ceres,"  first  ex- 
hibited at  the  Academy  of  Design,  was  followed 
by  several  bas-reliefs,  "  The  Morning  Star,"  "  The 
Evening  Star,"  "  The  Spirit's  Flight,"  then,  busts 
called  "  Resignation,"  and  "  Spring,"  all  of  these, 
sweetly  pretty  girlish  or  childish  heads  without 
much  individuality,  and  which  were  hurt  a  little 
by  their  fine  names.  Soon,  Palmer  attempted  a 
statue,  and  the  "  Indian  Girl,"  and  "  White  Cap- 
tive," were  hailed  by  the  public  with  extravagant 
praise — praise  that  their  own  merit,  great  indeed 
compared  with  that  of  most  of  the  home  sculpture 
already  produced,  has  helped  us  to  outgrow.  This 
is  not  to  depreciate  Palmer's  work,  which  has  its 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  3G7 

own  undeniable  excellences,  but  to  substitute  mod- 
eration for  the  extravagant  eulogy  that  is  so  much 
the  fashion.  Palmer  has  great  skill  in  working 
marble,  but  it  is  a  skill  better  suited  to  small 
works  than  to  large  ones,  as  indeed  is  also  the 
artist's  invention.  The  "  Indian  Girl,"  and  the 
"  White  Captive,"  are  better  studies  from  the  nude, 
than  is  Power's  "  Greek  Slave,"  but  they  are  hardly 
more  alive,  and  the  soft  pretty  style  of  handling 
makes  them  look  tamer  still.  We  hear  much  of 
Palmer's  theories,  of  his  indifference  to  the  an- 
tique, and  dislike  of  mannerism,  of  his  receipt  for 
hair  and  eyes  ;  but  his  theories  are  of  small  value 
when  his  work  is  here  to  show  us  how  little  they 
stand  him  in  stead.  Just  what  Palmer  never  gave 
one  of  his  statues,  busts,  or  bas-reliefs,  is  a  fine, 
well-opened  eye,  and  though  his  hair  is  sometimes 
soft  enough,  it  has  never  strength  nor  character. 
For  mannerism,  too,  that  does  not  come  out  of 
Academies,  nor  can  it  be  shied  by  turning  one's 
back  on  Italy.  It  comes  out  of  the  man  himself, 
and  is  likelier  to  be  strengthened  than  weakened 
by  rejecting  the  experience  of  other  men  and  ages. 
No  American  sculptor  of  note  is  more  mannered 
than  Mr.  Palmer,  albeit  his  manner  has  proved 
pleasing  to  a  very  large  number  of  people. 

William  Wetmore    Story,  was  born    in  Salem, 
Massachusetts,   February  12,    18 19.      His    father 


368  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

was  Chief  Justice  Story,  a  great  name  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  in  the  history  of  the  American  bar, 
for  learning  and  character.  The  career  of  his  son 
has  never  been  hindered  by  any  of  the  material 
wants  and  anxieties  that  have  made  life  so  hard  a 
school  to  many  of  our  best  artists.  When  he 
was  born,  Competence  received  him  into  her  lap ; 
he  was  tenderly  nurtured,  and  well  taught ;  he  was 
a  graduate  of  Harvard,  and  after  leaving  college, 
studied  law  and  wrote  treatises  on  law  matters  ; 
he  did  not,  however,  feel  specially  drawn  in  that 
direction,  but  rather  to  the  arts.  He  wrote  poet- 
ry, and  has  always  continued  to  write  it,  but  the 
world  has  not  much  cared  for  his  performances 
that  way  ;  we  are  always  thinking  we  have  heard 
the  strain  before,  in  Browning,  in  Tennyson,  in 
De  Musset.  As  a  writer  of  prose,  Mr.  Story  has 
had  a  larger  audience,  and  would  have  had  a  larger 
still,  for  his  book  about  Rome,  if  he  had  known 
how  to  be  less  diffuse,  and  to  digest  his  multifa- 
rious learning  better.  We  have  heard  it  said  that 
Mr.  Story  would  prefer  to  be  reckoned  a  poet 
rather  than  a  sculptor,  but  the  world,  so  far  as  it 
knows  him  at  all,  knows  him  by  his  statues, 
though  the  American  public  has  had  little  chance 
to  become  acquainted  with  him  this  way,  seeing 
that  few  statues  by  him,  and  none  of  those  in 
which  his  friends  take  most  pride,  have  been  ex- 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  369 

hibited  on  this  side  the  water.  His  earHest  work, 
a  full-length  statue  in  marble,  of  his  father,  is  in 
the  chapel  at  Mt.  Auburn  ;  it  is  a  respectable  per- 
formance, but  nothing  more,  though  when  it  was 
made  it  caused  some  flutter,  no  Chief  Justice's 
son  in  that  quarter  having  done  the  like  before. 
There  is  also  a  bronze  statue  of  Edward  Everett 
in  the  Boston  Public  Garden,  and  here,  we  think, 
the  artist  has  done  all  that  was  possible  with  his 
subject  ;  the  likeness  is  undeniable,  and  the  action 
characteristic.  It  has  been  much  joked  over,  but 
unjustly,  for  there  is  life  and  personality  in  it,  and 
these  are  much  to  find  in  a  statue  nowadays. 
Many  Americans,  too,  have  seen  the  bronze  statue 
of  George  Peabody  in  London.  These  three  are, 
we  believe,  the  only  important  works  of  Story  that 
are  to  be  found  outside  of  private  houses,  at  home 
and  abroad.  In  the  great  Exhibition  of  1862  — 
Brompton  —  two  statues  by  Story  were  more 
looked  at  and  more  admired,  than  any  other  two. 
These  were  the  "  Libyan  Sibyl  "  and  the  "  Cleo- 
patra," —  the  latter  now  in  the  possession  of  John 
Taylor  Johnston,  of  New  York.  Another  statue, 
"  Sappho,"  belongs  to  Mr.  Peterson,  of  Philadel- 
phia. These  three  are  Mr.  Story's  best  works,  and 
though  the  time  has  not  yet  come  to  judge  them 
fully  —  for  no  statue  nor  work  of  art,  of  whatever 
kind,  can  be  fully  judged  until  it  has  stood  in  the 

24 


870  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

light  of  the  pubHc  square  —  the  final  verdict  will 
probably  be  that  his  work  shows  culture,  study, 
native  refinement,  and  talent  of  an  elegant,  schol- 
arly sort,  but  little  imagination  and  little  creative 
power. 

Thomas  Ball,  born  in  Charlestown,  Mass.,  June 
3,  1 8 19,  is  known  to  the  pubhc  chiefly  by  his 
equestrian  statue  of  Washington,  set  up  not  long 
ago  in  the  Boston  Public  Garden.  It  is  a  manly 
work,  faithful  in  portraiture,  carefully  studied,  a 
conscientious  performance,  having  much  the  same 
interest  to  us  as  the  Houdon  statue  —  the  straight- 
forward truthfulness  of  the  daguerreotype.  Mr. 
Ball,  who  has  long  lived  in  Italy,  began  life  as  a 
painter,  and  made  some  mark  in  that  direction  ; 
he  is  a  man  of  many  accomplishments,  has  a  fine 
voice,  and  was  at  one  time  counted  a  remarkable 
singer.  As  a  sculptor  his  name  has  not  been  so 
much  in  men's  mouths  as  that  of  some  others,  but 
those  who  knov/  his  works  know  that  they  are  in 
the  best  sense  "  works  "  ;  they  are  not  trifling,  mer- 
cenary performances,  but  sincere  and  earnest  — 
the  artist  putting  his  best  self  into  them,  and  thus 
making  sure  in  every  case  of  a  result  with  its  own 
value,  and  that  lasting. 

John  Quincy  Adams  Ward  was  born  in  Urbana, 
Champaign  County,  Ohio,  June  29,  1830.  His 
father  was  a  well-to-do  farmer,  working  his  own 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  371 

three  hundred  acres,  and  his  son  had  the  usual 
advantages  in  the  way  of  schooUng  that  were  open 
to  boys  in  those  days,  in  what  was  then  the  Far 
West.  His  father  knew  the  vakie  of  education, 
but  he  had  sense  to  see  that  it  does  not  all  come 
from  books,  so  that  young  Ward,  getting  the  rudi- 
ments of  learning  easily  in  the  winter  schooling, 
learned  as  easily  in  the  out-of-door  summer  ses- 
sion held  by  Dame  Nature,  all  the  athletic  arts,  and 
could  ride,  drive,  shoot,  swim,  and  skate,  with  the 
best  of  his  fellows.  But  Nature  had  a  fine  les- 
son to  teach  her  boy,^  and  wooed  him  by  means  of 
a  clay  bank  and  a  friendly  potter,  up  through  the 
low  degrees  of  pots  and  pipkins,  to  pots  orna- 
mented with  bas-rehef ;  then  to  ingenious  toys  in 
which  the  future  talent  for  the  real  is  seen  in  bud, 
"  churches,  saw-mills,  and  whole  villages  of  people, 
and  a  representation  oi  a  train  of  cars,  then  a 
novelty  to  western  villagers."  Later  he  gets  hold 
of  some  wax  out  of  which  his  sister  had  meant  to 
make  flowers,  carries  it  off  by  stealth  to  the  fields, 
and  there  in  a  shady  spot  works  day  after  day 
fashioning  without  a  model  and  without  instruc- 
tion, getting  hints  from  engravings  mainly,  a 
small  female  figure.     As  he  grew  older,  his  dis- 

1  For  a  readable,  accurate  sketch  of  Ward's  life  thus  far,  see  an 
article  by  M.  D.  O'C.  Townley,  in  Scribner's  Monthly,  August, 
1871,  to  which  I  am  much  indebted  for  my  own  condensed  ac- 
count. 


372  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

inclination  for  the  farm-life  showed  itself  plainly ; 
his  family  gave  him  permission  to  study  medicine, 
but  this  suited  him  no  better ;  finally,  as  often 
happens  to  growing  boys  restrained  by  kind  un- 
wisdom from  a  natural  bent,  he  fell  ill,  and  his 
good  sister,  divining  his  trouble,  went  to  Henry 
K.  Brown,  and  asked  his  help  in  making  a 
sculptor  of  her  brother.  Mr.  Brown,  with  great 
good  sense,  discouraged  the  boy  at  first,  but  in  a 
'wz.y  that  showed  him  the  door  was  not  shut,  and 
later  in  the  year,  after  Ward  had  made  proof  that 
he  could  do  something,  he  entered  Brown's  studio 
in  Brooklyn,  and  remained  with  him  seven  years. 
While  with  Brown,  Ward  assisted  him  in  making 
the  "  Washington,"  in  Union  Square,  and  after- 
ward, having  taken  the  studio  as  his  own  when 
Mr.  Brown  left  Brooklyn,  he  made  there  the 
model  of  the  "  Indian  Hunter,"  and  of  "  Simon 
Kenton,"  the  pioneer  of  Ohio.  In  1859,  during 
a  visit  to  Washington,  he  made  busts  of  John 
P.  Hale,  Joshua  Giddings,  and  Alexander  H. 
Stephens,  and  he  also  produced  copies  in  bronze 
of  the  "  Indian."  In  1863  Ward  was  elected  a 
member  of  the  Academy,  and  in  1864  he  completed 
the  setting  up  of  his  "  Indian  "  in  clay.  Later  it 
was  exhibited  in  New  York  in  plaster,  and  in  1867, 
having  been  cast  in  bronze,  it  was  sent  to  the 
memorable  Paris  Exposition  of  that  year,  where  it 


A^fERICAX  SCULPTURE.  373 

was  one  of  the  very  few  works  of  art  from  America 
that  received  any  notice  from  the  French  artists 
and  critics.  When  it  was  brought  back  to  New 
York  it  was  placed  in  the  Central  Park,  having 
been  purchased  by  the  commissioners.  Ward's 
statue  in  bronze  of  Commodore  Perry,  a  commis- 
sion from  a  gentleman  who  married  into  the  Perry 
family,  has  been  set  up  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island, 
and  another  bronze,  like  that  of  Perry,  of  heroic 
size,  —  a  young  soldier  in  the  uniform  of  the 
Seventh  Regiment,  New  York  State  Militia,  a 
commission  from  the  Seventh  Regiment,  —  has 
been  set  up  in  the  Central  Park  as  a  memorial  of  the 
part  played  by  the  regiment  in  the  war.  "  The 
Good  Samaritan,"  carved  in  granite,  —  a  most  un- 
satisfactory material  for  a  statue,  —  was  a  commis- 
sion executed  by  Ward  to  commemorate  the  Mor- 
ton-Jackson application  of  ether  as  an  anaesthetic. 
It  is  one  of  the  sculptor's  best  works  but  it  never 
will  be  known  until  it  is  taken  down  from  the  ab- 
surd pedestal  on  which  it  is  hoisted  in  the  Public 
Garden  in  Boston,  and  placed  on  a  pedestal  which 
shall  bring  it,  as  every  statue  ought  to  be  brought, 
on  a  level  with  the  eye.  Ward's  latest  statue  is 
the  "  Shakespeare,"  long  ago  finished,  but  not  set 
up  in  the  place  destined  for  it  in  the  Park  until 
April  of  the  present  year,  1872.  The  statue  has 
been  variously  criticised,  but,  on  the  whole,  Ward 


374  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

is  reckoned  to  have  met  the  difficulties  of  the  prob- 
lem he  had  to  solve  with  more  success  —  if  suc- 
cess can  be  comparative  —  than  could  have  been 
looked  for.  Next  to  the  "  Indian  Hunter,"  the 
"  Shakespeare "  is  Ward's  best  work,  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  has  much  increased  his 
reputation. 

Here  we  close  our  too  slight  notice  of  the  Amer- 
ican sculptors,  for  lack  of  space  forbids  our  taking 
up  every  name.  Launt  Thompson,  though  born 
in  Ireland  {1833),  and  not  seeing  America  until 
he  was  fourteen  years  old,  has  yet  so  identified 
himself  with  America,  that  his  name  should  not 
be  omitted  from  any  list  of  American  sculptors, 
though  no  one  work  of  his  stands  out  very 
strongly  from  the  general.  A  rather  exaggerated 
bust  called  "  The  Trapper,"  a  head  of  Booth  as 
Hamlet,  in  which  the  formality  and  fatal  lack  of 
facial  expression  of  the  original  are  well  repre- 
sented, and  a  colossal  statue  of  Napoleon  the 
Great,  made  for  one  of  the  Emperor's  old  soldiers, 
are  the  best  known  of  Mr.  Thompson's  works. 

The  small  groups  in  plaster,  made  by  John 
Rogers  of  Salern,  Mass.,  the  subjects  drawn  from 
the  war  and  from  every-day  American  life,  have 
had  such  an  immense  popularity  that  the  making 
of  them  has  become  a  regular  business,  and  brings 
him  in  a  large  income.     Two  or  three  of  them  have 


AMERICAN  SCULPTURE.  375 

considerable  artistic  merit,  and  in  many  of  them 
there  is  a  certain  cleverness  and  naturalness  that 
justify  the  popular  liking.  They  are  certainly  a 
godsend  to  the  public  with  small  means  to  expend 
on  works  of  art  that  has  so  long  been  wearily 
stranded  on  the  abominable  casts  of  Venuses  and 
Apollos  with  the  Canova  Graces. 

Names  of  more  significance  are  those  of  Shobal 
Vail  Clevenger,  born  at  Middletown,  Ohio,  in  1812, 
died  at  sea,  September  28,  1843  ;  Edward  Sheffield 
Bartholomew,  born  at  Colchester,  Connecticut, 
1822,  died  at  Naples,  May  2,  1858  ;  and  Benjamin 
Akers,  known  as  Paul  Akers,  born  at  Saccarappa, 
Maine,  July  10,  1825,  died  at  Philadelphia,  May  21, 
1 86 1.  These  three  were  artists,  born  with  the  true 
temperament  of  genius,  and  able  to  have  made 
a  strong  mark  upon  the  world  had  not  ill-health 
stayed  their  hands  and  baulked  their  efforts.  Of 
the  three,  Bartholomew  accomplished  perhaps  the 
greatest  amount  of  actual  work,  and,  thanks  to  the 
collection  of  his  casts  and  marbles  preserved  at 
Hartford,  his  performance  can  be  studied  and 
rated  at  its  just  value  as  that  of  no  other  Amer- 
ican sculptor  can,  unless  it  be  Ward,  whose  best 
works  are  in  the  Central  Park,  and  Crawford,  of 
whose  statues  there  is  a  complete  collection  of 
casts  in  a  building  in  the  same  place.  Barthol- 
omew's best  work,  the  "  Eve,"  is  in  the  possession 


376  AMERICAN  SCULPTURE. 

of  Mr.  Joseph  Harrison,  Jr.,  of  Philadelphia.  In 
conclusion,  we  must  mention  the  fact  that  a  num- 
ber of  American  women  have  made  praiseworthy 
efforts  to  accomplish  something  in  sculpture,  and 
if  it  would  be  mere  flattery  to  admit  that  any  one 
of  them  has  done  work  worthy  of  lasting  admira- 
tion, it  is  no  less  creditable  to  them  to  have  tried, 
and  they  may  at  least  be  judged  the  peers  of  many 
men  calling  themselves  sculptors,  and  called  so  by 
an  easy  world. 


INDEX  OF  SCULPTORS  AND 
SCULPTURES. 


PACK 

Abydos  (Sepulchres  of)     .          .         .     ' 

.               .               .               .           36 

Achilles  (Statue  of)    . 

•    98,  99,  100,  lor,  116 

Acropolis  of  Athens  .... 

153,  158,  161,  180 

Adam  (Lambert  Sigisbert) 

.     322 

(Nicolas  Sebastien)     . 

.     322 

Addison  (Tomb  of )   . 

.     277 

Adonis  (Statue  of)     . 

.     261 

Adrian  of  Vries 

.     294 

^gina  (Marbles  of)  .          .          .          .8 

!,  82,  83,  84,  85,  86,  89 

Agamemnon  (Statue  of)     . 

122 

Agasias 

100 

Ageladas.          ..... 

78,  79,  80,  91 

Agesander 

.     141 

Agnolo  of  Siena        .... 

.     202 

Agostino  of  Siena      .... 

•  .     202 

Agrates  or  Agratus  .          .          .          .          . 

.     208 

Agrippa  (Statue  of)  . 

.     192 

Agrippina  (Statue  of)          .          .          . 

.       183,  184 

Albano    ...... 

.     227 

Alberto  Pio  (Tomb  of)       . 

.     306 

Alcamenes        ..... 

98,  120,  144,  167 

Alcibiades  (Statue  of)         ...          . 

120 

Alexander  (Statue  of)         .          .          . 

.       119,  197 

Alexander  and  Diogenes  (Bas-relief)    . 

•     315 

Alfieri  (Tomb  of)       . 

•     136 

Algardi    ...... 

,      227,  315 

Alhambra  (Lions  of  the)     .         .         .         . 

.     238 

378 


INDEX. 


Ailegrain  (Chr'^tien). 

"  Altar  of  the  Twelve  Gods" 

"  Amazon  attacked  by  a  lioness 

Amazons 

Amenopliis  (Image  of) 

Amenti  (Assessors  of) 

Ammanato 

Ammon  Ra  (Figure  of) 

Amphicrates     . 

Amset  (Head  of) 

Amten  (Tomb  of) 

Andrea  of  Pisa 

Andre  (Monument  to) 

Aneka  (Figure  of) 

Anguier  (Francois) 

(Michel)  . 

Anochus  (Statue  of) 
Anthermus 
Antinoiis  (Statue  of) 
Apelles    . 

Aphrodite  (Statue  ol 
Apollino  (The) 
ApoUodorus 
Apollo  and  the  Swan 

Belvedere  .  .      95 

(The  bronze) 

Citharoedus 

descending  to  Thetis 

(The  Didymoean) 

Epicurius 

(The  Lycian) 

Parnopos 

(The  Pythian) 

of  Rhodes 

Sauroctonos 

(Statues  of) 

ApoUonius 

"  Arc  de  I'Etoile  "  (The) 

Argenti    . 


I'iO 


I3I' 


9+ 


77, 


184, 


138, 


107, 


107, 


PAGR 

•    325 

.    123 

258,  260 

■    137 

.     26 

36,  40 

.    226 

•     30 

90 

•     36 

9,  40 

.  202 

•  274 

•   30 

307, 

308,  309 

307, 

308, 

339,  310 

•  79 

•  75 

is-,, 

191, 

192,  196 

.  122 

104,  122 

nr, 

132,  133 
•  130 

■  145 

139, 

140, 

1^.1,  230 
140 

• 

.  m8 

• 

•  317 

•  79 

•  151 

107,  icS 

.  168 

1 88, 

189, 

140,  235 

112 

.   107 

211, 

262, 

294.  323 
.  157 

. 

•  332 

237 


54,  55.  56 


INDEX. 

"  Ariadne  on  the  Panther" 

(Statue  of) 

Aristaeus 

(Statue  of) 

Aristides  (Statue  of) 

Aristocles 

Aristomedon    . 

Assyria  (Bas-reliefs  of)        .  .  -53 

Athene  (Statue  of) 

Athenodorus    . 

Athens  (Terra-cottas  of)     . 

"  Atlas  sustaining  a  celestial  globe 

Atum  (Figure  of)      . 

Aubert  (Bust  of )        . 

Augustus  (Statue  of) 

Auxesia  (Figure  of )  . 

"  Aux  grands  hommes  la  palrie  reconnaissante "  (Bas 


"Awaking"  (The)    . 

Bacchante  (A) 
Bacchus  (The  Drunken) 

(The  Indian,  or  Bearded) 

(Statue  of) 

Baerz  (Jacques  dc)     . 

Balbiani  (Valentine,  Tomb  of) 

Balbus  (Statues  of)    . 

Bartholomew  (Saint,  Statue  of) 

Bartolini. 

Barye  (Antoine  Louis) 

Basilicata  (Vases  of  the)     . 

Bas-reliefs  by  Anselm 

"  Battle  of  Assur-Akh-Bai  "  (Bas-relief) 

<' of  the  Centaurs  and  Lapilhce". 

" of  the  Greeks  and  Amazons  "  . 

Becerra  (Jasper)         .... 

Begas      ...... 

Bernini  (Lorenzo)      .          .          .  loo,  129,  226, 
Berruguete  (Alonzo) 


.379 

PACK 

254,    25s,    256 

•        333 

.         148 

.       79 
.       78 

57,  59,  270 

•  77 
142 

•  43 
.     148 

•  30 

•  327 
184,  187 

.       86 

relief) 

233,  234 
.     299 

•  332 
212,  223 

no 

£0,    156,   205 
.       267 

•  303 
.        186 

.       208 

•  237 
330,   331 

.       66 
.     202 

•  56 

•  151 

240,  242,  245 
256,  261 
227,  228,  261,  286 
240,  241,  242,  245 


380 


INDEX. 


PAGE 

Berulle  (Tomb  of)     .....,,          .     307 

Birague  (Rene,  Tomb  of)  . 

.        303 

"Birth  of  Pallas  "  (Parthenon) 

167,    168,    169 

"Birth  of  Venus"     . 

122 

Blucher  (Statue  of)   , 

•       257 

Boar  (The,  of  Florence) 

.        124 

Bogaert  (Martin  Van) 

.       321 

Bonnassieux  (Jean  Marie)  . 

•       331 

Bosio  (Joseph) . 

•       329 

Bouchardon 

321,   322,   323 

Boucher . 

•       323 

Bossuet  (Bust  of) 

.       316 

Boutellier  (Jean) 

.       2S9 

"Boxers"  (The) 

.       229 

Briaxis     . 

.        152 

Brunelleschi 

202,   214 

Brutus  (Statue  of) 

211,  221 

"  Bull "  (The  Bronze  of  Perillus) 

•      75 

Bulow  (Statue  of )     . 

•     257 

Buonarotti  (Michael  Angelo)  97,  133,  139,  141,  142,  145,  179,  184, 

202,   210,   211,   214,   215,^  216,   217,  218,  219,  220,  221,  222, 

223,  224,   226,   236,   237,  239,  240,  261,  276,  2S6,  292,  293, 

295>   306,   311-   312,   315. 

Bupalus 75 

Butler  (Tomb  of )      . 

•     277 

"  Byblis  changed  into  a  fountain  " 

•     330 

C^SAR  (Bust  of )       . 

.        .        .     183 

(Statue  of) 

.      184,  186 

Calamis  . 

140 

Caffieri  (Jacques) 

.     321 

Caligula  (Bu„t  of) 

.     182 

(Statue  of) 

.     189 

Callicrates 

158,  168,  271 

Callo       . 

81,  87 

Calvary  of  Spires 

•     250 

of  St.  Roch 

.     308 

Camden  (Tomb  of) 

•     275 

Caiiachus 

1 

.       79 

INDEX. 


381 


Canino  (Vases  of )     .  . 

Cano  (Alonzo). 

"Canopi"        .... 

Canova  (Antonio)  97,  148,  220,  228,  229,  230,  2, 

236,  237,  255,  261,  280,  282,  323. 
"  Capitoline  Tablets"  (The) 
Captives  (The,  by  M.  Angelo) 
Caracalla  (Bust  of)   . 
Carpeaux 

Cairrel  (Armand,  Statue  of) 
Caryatid  (A)    . 
Caryatides  (by  Puget) 
Casaubon  (Tomb  of) 
Castor  and  Polhix  (Statues  of) 
Cavelier  (Pierre  Jules) 
Cecrops  (Torso  of)    . 
Cellini  (Benvenuto)  . 
Centaur  (A) 
Cephisodotus    . 
Cervetri  (Vases  of )   . 
Care  (Antiquities  of) 
Chabot  (Statue  of)    . 
Chambres  (Helen  de,  Tomb  of) 
Chantry  . 
Charles  V.  (Triumphs  of,  Bas-relief) 

the  Bold  (Tomb  of) 

IX.  (Bust  of)    . 

Chares    ... 
Charon  (Statue  of)    . 
Chastity  (Statue  of)  . 
Chatham  (Tomb  of). 
Chaucer  (Tomb  of)  . 
Chaudet  (Antoine  Denis) 
Chephrem  (Statue  of) 
"  Chevaux  de  Marly  or  Ecuyers 
Child's  Bust  by  Pilon 
"Chimjera"  (They    . 
Chimney-piece  by  Glosencamp 
Chons  (Figure  of )     . 


PAGE 

43.  66 
245,  247,  248 

•    35.  3^  37 
;r,  232,  233,  234, 

33 
!i8,  221,  293,  295 

193 
334 
334 
156 

315 

277 
184 

331 

176 

225,  229,  292 

•  117 

•  133 

43.  65 
43-  65 
306 
291 
280 
241 
244.  265 

305 
112 

322 
114 
275 
277 
329 
80 

3'8 

268 

38,  52,  63,  149 

268 

30 


382 


INDEX. 


'*  Christ  and  the  Twelve  Apostles" 

" beneath  the  Shroud  " 

Christ  by  Bouchardon 

by  Fa  Presto     . 

by  M.  Angelo  . 

on  the  Cross 

Chiysothemus  . 
"Circumcision"  (The) 
Citium  (Antiquities  of) 
Claux  de  Vousonne   . 
Clement  XIII.  (Tomb  of) 

■ XIV.  (Tomb  of) 

Cleomenes 

Cleosthenes  (Statue  of) 
Cleves  (Corneille  Van) 
Colbert  (Bust  of) 

(Tomb  of) 

Colleoni  (Statue  of) 
Colomb  (Michault) 
Colomban  (Andre) 
Colossi  of  Khorsabad 
Commines  (Tomb  of) 
"  Conclamatio  "  (Bas-relief) 
Conde  (Statue  of) 

(Tomb  of) 

Congreve  (Tomb  of) 

"  Consolatrice  "  (La) 

Constance      j 

Constantine   WCompound  Statue  of) 

Constant        ' 

Corinna  (Bust  of )      . 

Corneille  (Statue  of) 

Corneilles  (Busts  of  the)      . 

Cornelius 

Cornewall  (Captain,  Tomb  of) 

Corradini  (Antonio)  . 

Cortot  (J.)         • 

Courtenvaux  (Tomb  of) 

Cosmo  (Saint,  Statue  of). 


PAGE 

197,  262 
227,  2S0 

•  323 
.  227 
.  216 

.  308 

.  78 
.  291 
60,  61 
.  267 

•  239 
.  229 

130.  133 

.  79 
.  322 

.  308 
.  316 

206,  207 
290,  292,  296,  306 
.  290 

47.  50,  52 
291 
194 
334 
307 
276 
230 

198 

329 
324 
321 

253 
273 
228 

330 
308 
214 


INDEX. 


Coudray  (Frau9ois) 
Cousin  (Jean)    . 
Coustou  (Nicolas) 

(Guillaume) 

"Cow  of  Myron" 

Coysevox  (Antoine) 

Crauk 

Croix  (Hennequin  de  la) 

Cuneiform  Inscriptions 

"Cupid  and  Psyche" 

clipping  his  wings 

(A  sleeping) 

seizing  a  Butterfly 

tormenting  a  soul 

(A  Victorious)  . 

Cupids     . 

Cypselus  (Carved  Chest  of 

Cyprus  (Terra-cottas  of) 

Dameas 

Damia  (Figure  of)     . 
Damian  (Saint,  Statue  of) 
"  Damoxenus  and  Creugas 
Dannecker 

Dantan  (Antoine  Laurent) 
"Daoizand  Velarde" 
♦'  Daphnis  and  Chloe  " 
David  (by  Francheville) 

(by  M.  Angelo) 

(by  Donatello)  . 

(Louis) 

Pierre  Jean 

Davy  (Tomb  of) 

"Day"  (by  M.  Angelo) 

Decker  (Hans) 

"Dardali" 

Diedalus 

"  Daedalus  and  Icarus  " 

De  la  Croix  (Hennequin) 


72, 


74, 


383 

PAGE 
301,    302,    306 

318,  3i9>  321 
318,  319 
.       80 

6,  317,  321 

.  3-^4 

.  290 

.  60 

.  326 

•  331 
.  213 

.     329 

•  331 
.     324 

no 

•  77 
.       43 

.  77 

.  86 

.  214 

.  229 

.  254 

•  333 
.  247 

•  330 
.  309 
.  213 
.  203 
.  329 

•  333 
.  275 
.  214 
.  250 

•  74 
Si,  87,  201 

.  229 
.     290 


384 


INDEX. 


Delos  (Terra-cottas  of) 

Delia  Robbia  (Luca). 

Demigiano 

Demosthenes  (Statue  of) 

Denis  (St.,  Gate  of) 

"Departure"  (The,  Bas-relief) 

"  Deposition  from  the  Cross  " 

Desboeufs  (Antoine)  . 

"  Descent  from  the  Cross  " 

Desjardins 

De  Thou  (Tomb  of) 

"  Diana  at  the  Bath 

of  Ephesus 

Huntress 

of  Gabii  . 

with  the  Stag 

Statue  of 

Dip^nus . 

"Discobolus"  (The; 

"  Dispute  of  Poseidon  and  Pallas 

Djizeh  (Sculptures  of) 

Dogs  (Bronze)  . 

Domitian  (Statue  of) 

Domitius  Corbulo  (Statue  of) 

Donatello 

Dontas    . 

Doryclidas 

"  DoryphorEe  "  (The) 

Drake  (Fred)    . 

Drogues  (Jehan  de)   . 

Dryden  (Tomb  of)    . 

Dubois  (Paul)  , 

Dumont  (Alexander) 

(Edme)     . 

Dupaty  (Charles) 

Dupre 

Duret  (Fran9ois  Pierre) 

Diirer  (Albert) 

• (Statue  of) 


94>  95 


97> 


202,  21 


• 

43 

202, 

204,  205 

. 

.  291 

. 

119 

. 

308 

. 

332 

. 

297 

. 

331 

. 

251 

. 

321,  322 

. 

308,  309 

. 

•   325 

90,  97 

01,  109, 

137,  140 

. 

.  109 

94,  95 

127, 

296,  326 

77,  78 

, 

.  118 

• 

168,  174 

. 

5,  10 

• 

.  296 

. 

192 

. 

.  192 

03, 204, 

214,  224 

• 

.   78 

• 

.   78 

• 

.   98 

255, 

258,  261 

. 

.  268 

. 

.  277 

. 

•  334 

. 

•  331 

• 

.  322 

. 

330,  332 

. 

•  237 

• 

•  331 

. 

251,  252 

. 

257 

ias-r 


INDEX. 

*'  Early  Dawn  "  (by  M.  Angclo) 
Eg>'pt  (Black  Lions  of) 

(Pyramids  of)    . 

"Elfin  Dance"  (The) 
Elizabeth  (Tomb  of) 
Endoeus  . 
Ensahor  (Statue  of)  . 

"  Entrance  of  Alexander  into  Babylon 

Epeus 

Epicurius  (Statue  of) 

Erectheum  (Portico  of  the) 

"  Erection  of  a  Colossal  Bull  "  (B; 

Evwin  of  Steinbach   . 

Euchir     .  .  •  • 

EuteVidas 

Evangelists  (Statues  of  the) 

"  Evening"  (By  M.  Angelo) 

Falcon  NET  (Etienne) 

Falquiere 

Fa  Presto  (Luca) 

Faun's  Head  (by  M.  Angelo) 

"  Faun  with  the  Child  "     . 

(The  Dancing)  . 

(The  Drunken) . 

(The  Musical)   . 

Fauns  (Two  dancing) 
Faustina  (Statue  of)  . 
Fenelon  (Bust  of) 
Ferdinand  of  Arragon  (Tomb  of) 

Fiers        .  .  •  • 

"Fish  in  a  net" 

Flaxman 

"Flayed  Man"  (The) 

Flora  (The  Farnese) . 

Florence  (Baptistery  of)      . 

"  Fontaine  dcs  Innocents  " 

. de  Moliere 

t. dc  la  Rue  de  Crenelle 


relief) 


385 

PACK 

.        214 

.        184 

9 

.  203 

.  273 

.  90 

.  28 

.  262 

.  122 

.  121 

•  154 

.  56 

.  249 

.  78 

.  78 
206,  297 

.  214 

.  321 
»  334 
.  227 
210,  211 
.  114 
43,  144,  294 
144 
32,  133.  140 
.  114 
•  193 
.  316 

243.  244 
.  269 
.  280 
.  280 
.  326 
146 
.  203 

299,  3CHD 

.    332 
.    323 


i:-,  145 


38G 


INDEX. 


*'  Force  " 

Foyatier 

Fra  Barduccio  Cherichini  (Statue 

"France"  (Bas-relief) 

Francheville  (Pierre). 

Fran9ois  de  Bretagne  (Tomb  of) 

Fremier  (Emmanuel) 

Frederick  the  Great  (Monument 

William  III.  (Statue  of) 

"  Friendship"  (Statue  of). 

"  Ganymede  and  the  Eagle  " 
Garrick  (Tomb  of)    . 
Gatteaux  (Nicolas  Marie)    . 
Gay  (Tomb  of) 
Geefs        .... 
Genevieve  (Saint,  Tomb  of) 
"  Genius  of  Eternal  Repose  " 
"  Genius  of  Liberty  " 
Georga  (Saint,  Statue  of.) 
Geta  (Statue  of) 
Ghiberti  (Lorenzo)     . 
Giam-Bologna 
Gines  (Juan) 
Girardon  (Fran9ois)  . 
Giovanni  of  Pisa 
Gladiator  (The  Dying) 

(The  Fighting)  . 

Glaucias  . 

Glaucus   . 

Glosencamp  (Hermann) 

Glycon     . 

Gnidus  (Venus  of)     . 

Goethe  and  Schiller  (Statues  of) 

Gois  (Adrian)   . 

Goldsmith  (Tomb  of) 

Goujon  (Jean)  . 

"Graces"  (The  Three) 

Gray  (Tomb  of) 


of) 


267 


296, 


PAGE 

30S,  331 

333 

204 

332 

309 

29c 

331 

257 

258 

293 

148 

278 

,331 

•  277 

.  269 

305 

•  "3 

•  331 

•  306 

•  193 

2 

02, 

203,  267 

2 

93. 

294.  309 

•  247 

I 

05. 

112,  317 

.  202 
.  136 

98, 

lOO,  I 

01, 

117,  140 

.   81 

•  75 
268,  269 

•  145 
105,  324 
259,  260 

•  329 

•  277 

297,  299,  3 

00, 

301.  307 

79,  I 

20, 

252,  262 

t 

.  276 

Gruyere  (Charles) 

"  Guardian  Angel  leading  a  Repentant  Sinner  to  God 

Guillain  (Simon)  307 

Guillaime 

Gunnery  .  .  •  • 

Gutenberg  (Statue  of) 
Guyot  de  Beaugrant 

Hadrian  (Statue  of) 

Handel  (Tomb  of)    . 

Hapi  (Head  of) 

Harcourt  (Tomb  of). 

"  Hannodius  and  Aristogiton  " 

Harpocrates  (Statue  of)      . 

Harpy  Tomb  (The)  . 

Hathor  (Figure  of )    . 

Hector  (Obsequies  of,  Bas-relief) 

Hecuba  (Statue  of )   . 

Hegias  or  Hegesias   . 

Henri  H.  (Bust  of )    . 

in.  (Bust  of)    . 

IV.  (Bust  of)     . 

IV.  (Statue  of). 

Henry  VII.  (Tomb  of) 

Heracles  (Statue  of ). 

"  Heracles  crowned  by  Glory  " 

(The  Farnese)   . 

(Head  of) 

in  Repose 

on  the  Pile 

vanquished  by  Love 

(Various  statues  of)   . 

Hermabicippus  (A)    . 

Hermaphrodite  (The  Borghese) 

"Hermes" 

Hippomachi  of  Lysippus    . 

"  Homer  in  rhapsody  " 

Horus  (Statue  of )      . 

Houdon  (Jean  Antoine)      . 


184 

279 

36 

325 
90 

137 
149 

29.  30 
122 

137 
90 

297,  305 
305 

309 
309 
2  So 

77 

3-0 

3,  I45>  146 

306,  307 

312 

320 

322 

84,  no,  213,  321 

120 

114 

9,  120 

III 

329 

28,  30 

325,  326,  327,  328,  332 


387 

PAGB 

332 

,    309 

Jj4 
334 
262 
269 


388  ISDEX. 

Huez  (Jean  Baptiste) 
Husson  (Jean)  . 
Hyacinthus  (Statue  of )       . 
Hygeia  (Statue  of )    . 
Hyperion  (Head  of). 

ICTINUS  .... 

"Idolino"  (The)       . 

Ilyssus  (Figure  of,  Parthenon) 

"  Improvisatore  at  the  Vintage  ' 

Innocence  (Statue  of) 

Iris  (Statue  of) 

Isis  (Figure  of) 

Ivory  Group  by  Diirer 

Jacquot  (Georges)   . 

"  j3-g"^r  devouring  a  Hare  " 

Jaley  (Leon  Louis  Nicolas) 

Jerome  (Saint,  Statue  of)  . 

"  Jason  bringing  home  the  Golden  Fleece  ' 

carrying  away  the  Golden  Fleece 

(Statue  of)         .... 

Jean  de  Boulogne  [See  Giam  Bologna) 

"Jesus  bearing  His  Cross" 

Joan  of  Arc  (Statue  of) 

John  the  Baptist  (Statue  of) 

John  the  Fearless  (Tomb  of) 

Johnson  (Tomb  of )    . 

"  Juana  la  Loca  "  (Tomb  of) 

Juan  de  la  Huerta 

Judith  (Statue  of) 

Julia  (Statue  of) 

Julius  II.  (Statue  of) 

(Tomb  of) 

"  Junction  of  the  Seine  and  Marne  " 
Juno  of  Argos  (Statue  of) 

of  the  Capitol  (Statue  of)   . 

of  Samos 

(Statue  of)         .  .  . 


33 


PAGE 
322 

332 
329 
148 
172 


158,    168,    271 
62 

175.    176 

331 

I.    332 

173 

30 

252 

332 

332 

239 
261 
256 

"7 

321 

332 

203,  204 
244,  266,  268 
.     277 

242,  266 

.     268 

.     203 

.     1S9 

[3,  2:7,  218 

216,  217 
.  3'8 
.       97 

•  137 
160,  220 

•  294 


INDEX. 


389 


Jupiter  Olympius  (Statue  of) 

Paiihellenios  (Statue  of) 

Serapis  (Statue  of)     . 

Juste  (Jean) 

Justice  (Statue  of )     . 

Kaeschmann  (Joseph) 
Kalah  Shergat  (Obelisk  of) 

(Statue  found  at) 

Karamles  (Relics  from) 
Kamak  (Hypostile  room  at) 

(Temple  of )       . 

Kebsnif  (Head  of)     , 
Kertch  (Palace  and  Tomb  of) 
Khorsabad  (Colossi  of) 

(Palace  of) 

Kneller  (Tomb  of)    . 

"  Knife  Grinder  "  (The) 

Koyunjik  (Palace  of) 

Krafft  (Adam)  . 

Krater  (The  Silver,  of  Delphi) 


77.  97.  I".  158,  159. 


La  Fayette  (Statue  of) 

"  Laocoon  "  (The)    . 

"LaLotta"     . 

Laphaes  . 

"  Latona  and  her  Childrei 

Lebrija  (High  Altar  of) 

Lebrun  (Bust  of) 

' '  Leda  and  the  Swan  " 

Legendre  (Roberte,  Tomb 

Lemaire  (Philippe  Henri) 

Lemonturier  (Antoine) 

Leonardo  (Alessandro) 

Leochares 

"  Life  of  the  Virgin  "  (Bas 

Livia  (Statue  of )       . 

Ligouier  (Lord,  Tomb  of) 

"  Lion  devouring  a  Boar  " 


loi,  12: 


"  (Parthenon) 


of)     . 


relief) 


140, 


141, 


47 


47,  I 


PACK 

160,    220 

82,83 

148 

291 

308 

256 

59 

59 

50 

■  29 

5.  ".  27 

36.  37 

•  43 
,  50,  52 

47,  48 

•  275 
35,  136 

•  50 
.     250 

•  75 

•  334 
81,  235,  313 

133 

78 

176 

246 

317 
321 

29 
332 
268 
206 
152 
290 
189 
274 
33c' 


390 


INDEX. 


"  Lo  Zuccone"         .   -      . 

Longneville  (Henri,  Monument  to) 
Lorenzo  de  Medici  (Mausoleum  of) 
Louisa  of  Russia  (Tomb  of) 

(Statue  of) 

Louis  XIL  (Tomb  of) 
(Statue  of) 


Xin.  (Statue  of) 

XIV.  (Statue  of) 

XV.  (Statue  of) 

Luccardi 

Lucius  Verus  (Bust  of) 
Luther  (Statue  of)     . 
Lydian  Tomb  (The) . 
Lysippus . 


PAGE 

.  204 

.  308 

.  214 

.  256 

.  256 

.  291 

.  291 

•  307 
242,  307,  316,  319 

•  319 
.237 
.     192 

•  257 
.          .       64 

no,    III,    119,    t20,    151,  259 


Macaulay  (Tomb  of )       . 
Madeleine  de  Savoie  Tende  (Tomb  of) 
"  Madonna  adoring  her  dead  Son  " 

of  Bruges 

della  Pieta 

• holding  the  Infant  Jesus 

• of  Naples 

"  Magdalene  "  (Repentant) 

Magny  (Tomb  of) 

Manetho  (Tables  of) 

Mansfield  (Tomb  of) 

*'Mano  de  la  teta"  . 

Marcus  Aurelius  (Equestrian  Statue  of) 

■ (Statue  of) 

Maria  Christina  (Tomb  of) 

Leczinska  (Statue  of) 

Marius  (Trophies  of) 

Mark  (Saint,  Statue  of )      . 

Marochetti  (Baron)    . 

Marriage  of  the  Virgin  (Bas-relief) 

Mars  (Statue  of )        . 

Marsyas  (Statue  of )  . 

(The  Bound)     . 


•  277 

•  309 
.     260 

222,  224 
.     215 

205,  240 
.  262 
36,  255,  280 

•  306 

9 
.  274 
.     240 

.  184 
186,  188,  189 
231,  232,  282 

•  319 
.  184 

•  203 
.  282 
.  291 

136,  261 
.  117 
.     118 


INDEX. 


391 


Mary  of  Burgundy  (Tomb  of) 

Stuart  (Tomb  of) 

(The  Virgin,  Statue  of) 

wife  of  William  III.  (Tomli  of) 

Mason  (Tomb  of )      . 

Matildia  (Bust  of)      . 

"  Massacre  of  the  Innocents  " 

Maurice  of  Saxony  (Bust  of) 

Mausolus  (Mausoleum  of) 

Maximilian  (Statue  of) 

Mazarin  (Tomb  of )   . 

Medici  (Tombs  of  the) 

Medon     .... 

Melas      .... 

Meleager  (Statue  of) 

Memnon  (Statue  of) 

Memphis  (Sepulchres  of)   . 

Menephtah  (Statue  of) 

Mentichetes  (Sepulchral  Room  of) 

"  Mercury  attaching  the  wings  to  his  heels  ' 

carrying  off  Hebe 

(The  Flying)     . 

and  Psyche 

of  Rome  . 

(The  Seated)     . 

(Statue  of) 

"  Metrodorus  and  Epicurius  "  (Statues 

Meyt  (Conrad) 

Micciades  .  .  .  , 

Michael  Angelo  {See  Buonarotti) 

Mignard  (Bust  of )     . 

Millet  (Anne)    .... 

Milo  (Statue  of )        . 

of  Crotona  (Statue  of) 

Miltiades  (Statue  of) 
Milton  (Tomb  of )  . 
"  Minei-va  after  the  Judgment  of  Paris 

of  Athens 

Hellotis   . 


of) 


I  lO, 


PAGE 

244, 

265,  266 

• 

.    273 

. 

•  3^3 

. 

.  273 

• 

.  277 

. 

•  193 

• 

247,  291 

• 

•  325 

• 

.  152 

• 

.  257 

• 

.  316 

• 

214,  280 

. 

.   78 

• 

•   75 

. 

•  145 

. 

.   26 

. 

.   36 

. 

.   27 

. 

.   40 

• 

.  321 

. 

.  295 

. 

•  295 

• 

.  295 

• 

140 

. 

•  144 

42,  262, 

294,  332 

• 

.  121 

• 

.  290 

• 

•   75 

• 

•  317 

• 

332,  334 

. 

.   77 

313. 

314,  324 

• 

.  120 

• 

277.  278 

. 

•  o-,^ 

90,  97, 

160,  220 

, 

.  107 

392 


INDEX. 


PACK 

Minerva  (The  Lemnian)     .          ,         .         .         .         .         -155 

Polias 

97,  155,  157 

Promachos 

.     15S 

(The  Warrior)  . 

•       155,  158,  159 

with  the  Necl<]ace 

.     107 

(Various  Statues  of)  . 

.      8z 

U  85,  97,  137,  176 

Modesty  (Statue  of) 

.      227,  332 

Moitte     .... 

•     332 

Moliere  (Bust  of )      . 

.     328 

Monlanes  (Jean  Martinez) 

.     245 

Montelupo  (Raffaello  da)    . 

.     214 

Montmorency  (Tomb  of)    . 

.     309 

Montorsoli 

.     214 

"  Monument  of  the  Pont  au  Cha 

nge  " 

.     307 

Monuments  of  Xanthus 

150,  151 

Moses  (Statue  of) 

212, 

2i8,  : 

219,  220,  223,  239 

Mouth  (Figure  of )     . 

•       30 

Munt  (Figure  of )       . 

.       30 

Muses  (The  Nine)     . 

III,  121,  262 

Mutius  Scaevola  (Statue  of) 

•     332 

Myron     .... 

78,  So 

Naiad  (A)       . 

•     332 

Naucydes 

.     u8 

Neith  (Figure  of) 

30,  137 

Nemesis  (Statue  of )  . 

.     Ill 

"  Neptune  calming  the  Waves  " 

•              •        's22 

(The  Colossal,  by  Ammanato)     . 

.       226 

• (Torso  of) 

.              .        176 

"Nereides"     .... 

122,   298 

Nero  (Statue  of )        . 

.          190,    192 

Nesa  (Statue  of)        . 

9,  27 

Nesrok  (Statue  of )    . 

.         .       58 

Newton  (Tomb  of)    . 

•      275,  276 

Nicolas  of  Pisa 

179,  202,  250 

Nightingale  (Tomb  of)       . 

.     281 

"  Night  "  (By  M.  Angelo) 

.     214 

Nike  Apteros  (Fragments  of,  Parthenon) 

.         .     176 

(Temple  of )      . 

• 

•     155 

INDEX. 


'  (Th 


Nile  (Statue  of  the)  . 
Niobe  and  her  Children 

(A  Son  of) 

Nisus  and  Euryalus  (Statues  of; 

Nola  (Vases  of) 

"  Nuestra  Seilora  de  la  Solidad 

Num  (Figure  of) 

Nuremberg  (Fountain  of) 

Nupte  (Figure  of)      . 

"  Nymph  of  Fontainebleau 

"  Nymphs  of  the  Seine  " 

Cannes  (Temple  of) 
Olivieri  (Pietro  Paolo) 
Onatas     . 

Orpheus  (Statue  of)  . 
"  Orator  "  (The) 
Orcagna  (Andrea)     . 
"Order"'  (Statue  of ) 
Osiris  (Figure  of) 

(Statuette  of)    . 

Otho  (Bust  of) 
Overbeck 


Pasht  (Figure  of)    . 
Pajou  (Augustin) 
Palissy  (Bernard) 
Palladio  . 
Pallas  of  Velletri 
Pantheon  (Pediment  of  the) 
Paoli  (Pasquale,  Tomb  of) 
Papias 

Parcx  (Statues  of  the) 
Parthenon  (Cella  of  the) 

(Frieze  of  the)  ....  162, 

(Metopes  of  the)         .  •  162,165, 

(Pediments  of  the)  162,  167,  168,  169,  170, 

. (Various  Sculptures  of  the)     151,  153,  154. 

172,  178,  179.  270. 


303 

PAGE 

125,    126,    127,    128 

•  332 

•  330 

43.  "66 
.     242 

•  30 
.     250 

•  30 
225,  226,  292 

298,  299 


.  49 

•  293 
81,87 

•  309 
.  63 
.  202 

•  331 

•  30 

•  30 
.  182 

•  253 


•  30 

•  324 
.  204 
.  180 
.  106 

•  333 
.  274 
.     117 

173.  174.  175 
162,  163  170,  178 
163,  164,  167,  170 
166,  167,  170,  178 
171,  174,  176,  178 
157,  159.  161,  170, 


394 


INDEX, 


Pascal  (Statue  of)      . 

Passion  (Bas-reliefs  of  the), 

Paul  III.  (Tomb  of) 

"  Peace"  (Statue  of) 

Pedro  de  Machua 

Pensevau  (Statue  of) 

"  Pensieroso"  (The) 

Perillus    . 

Perrand  . 

"  Persephone  and  Demeter"  (Statues  of) 

Perseus  (Statue  of)    . 

and  Andromeda 

■  cutting  off  the  Medusa's  Head 

delivering  Andromeda 

Peter  the  Great  (Statue  of) 
Petitot  (Messidor  Lebon)  . 
Pheidias  78,  80,  87,  89,  90,  93,  97,  98, 

152,   ISS.   157,   158,   159.   162,   167, 

285,  297,  315,  317. 
Philibert  le  Beau  (Tomb  of) 
Philippe  de  Chabot  (Mausoleum  of) 
Philip  the  Handsome  (Tomb  of) 

the  Hardy  (Tomb  of) 

Philopoemen  (Statue  of)     . 

Phiteus    .  .  .  • 

Phre  (Figure  of) 

Phtah  (Figure  of )      . 

Pierre  de  Breze  (Tomb  of) 

Pierre  Jacques  . 

Pigalle  (Jean  Baptiste) 

Pilon  (Germain) 

Pisa  (Pulpits  of) 

Pius  VI.  (Tomb  of )  . 

Plautilla  (Bust  of)     . 

"  Pluto  can-ying  away  Proserpine  " 

Plutus  (Statue  of) 

Pomona  (Statue  of)  . 

Polycles  . 

Polycletus 


PAOE 

.  331 

.  250 

.  280 

.  330 

.  241 

.  28 

.  214 

•  75 
.  334 
.  172 

229,  230 

.  312 

.  225 

•  3'3 
.  321 

•  332 
III,  114,  124,  130,  151, 

168,  177,  179.  180,  271, 


. 

290 

.   302 

243>  244 

244, 

266,  267 

.  334 

.  152 

•   30 

•   30 

301,  302 

.  306 

.     321, 

325.  326 

301,  302, 303, 

3o5>  321 

. 

.  202 

• 

229 
193 

• 

317 

•        • 

322 

•        • 

332 

. 

114 

.   78, 80, 98, 114 

2  A 

INDEX. 


3!)5 


Polydorus 

Polyhymnia  (St£.tue  of) 

"  Polyphemus  on  the  Rock  " 

Ponipey  (Bust  of) 

Poniatowski  (Statue  of) 

Pope  (Tomb  of) 

Porta  (Giacomo  della) 

Poucher  (Tomb  of)    . 

Pradier  (James) 

"Prayer" 

Praxiteles  87,  90,   93,  105,  108,  no,  126,  130,  133, 

285,  324. 
"  Presiding  Spirits  of  the  Games  " 
"  Prretorian  Soldiers  "  (The,  Bas-relief) 
Prieur  (Barthelemy)  .... 
"  Progress  of  Civilization  "  (Bas-relief) 
"  Prometheus  and  the  Vulture  ". 
Psammetichus-Mouneh  (Statue  of) 
"  Psyche  and  Cupid  " 

■ deserted  by  Cupid 

(Statue  of) 

with  the  Lamp  . 


"  Pteron  "  (The) 

Ptolycus  . 

Puget  220,   286,   307,   310,  312,  313,  314,  315,  316, 

323.  334- 
Pupienus  (Statue  of) 

Pythis 


Ra  (Figure  of) 
Ra-em-Ke  (Statue  of) 
Rameses-Meiamun  (Statue  of) 
Rameys  (The  two)     . 
Ra-Xefer  (Statue  of) 
"  Rape  of  a  Sabine  " 

Rauch  (Christian) 255,  2 

Ravi  (Jean) 

Rene  Birague  (Tomb  of) 

"  Repose  in  Egypt  "  (After  A.  Diirer) 


PAGE 
142 
112 

322 
182 
262 
277 

291 
332 
332 
144,  152,  209, 

122 

•  194 

•  309 
.   270 

.   322 
.    28 

.   324 

•  331 
324,  332 

.   326 
.   152 
.    81 
320,  321,  322, 

190,  197 
152,  153 

.    30 

.  7.  9 
.   26 


56, 


•  41 

.  294 

!57,  260 

.  289 

•  303 

.   2;i 


30(J 


INDEX. 


Rhsecus  • 

Rhytons  . 

Riclielieu  (Bust  of) 

Rietschel  (Ernest) 

"  River  god  pouring  water  from 

Roland  (P.  L.) 

Roman  (P.  L.). 

Rome  (Vases  found  at) 

Rosetta  Stone  (The) 

Rotator  (The)  . 

Rotrou  (Bust  of) 

RoubiUac 

Rousseau  (Jacques) 

(Bust  of  Jean-Jacques) 

Rowe  (Tomb  of) 
Rude  (Francois) 

Sabina  of  Steinbach 

"  Saint  Andrew  before  his  Cross 

"  Saint  Sebastian  at  the  Pillar 

(Statue  of) 

Sakkara  (Pyramid  of) 

Salmacis  (Statue  of). 

Samoun  (Sepulchres  of) 

Sansovino  (Jacobo  Tatti) 

Sappho  (Figure  of) 

Sarcophagi 

Sarrazin  (Jacques) 

Saxe  (Marshal,  Tomb  of) 

Satyrus    . 

ScarabKus 

Schadow. 

Schafra  (Statue  of) 

Scharnost  (General,  Statue  of) 

Schuffer  (Sebald) 

Schwanthaler   . 

Scopas     . 

Sculptors  of  Greece  (Statues  of) 

Scyllis     . 


his  urn  " 


202, 


20 


D' 


FACE 

.   74 

.   66 

.    .    .  316 

.   25s,  260 

•  321 

.  329 

•  330 

.   66 

•  38>  39>  40 

•   i35>  136 

.  321 

279 

322 

326 

277 

332 

249 

322 

322 

205 

9,  40 

•   114,  329 

5.  " 

2o5,  220,  224,  226 

.  142 

•  34,  35.  38,  193 

■   307,  310 

280,  326 

.  152 

.   32 

.  255 

8,  9,  41 

•  257 

.  250 

•  255 

126,  130,  152 

,  260 

77,  7S 

INDEX. 


397 


Seb  (Figure  of) 

Sebald  (Saint,  Baptisteiy  of) 

(Saint,  Tomb  of) 

Seguier  (Bust  of )       . 

Selinuntium  (Temple  of)    . 

Sepa  (Statue  of) 

Septimus  Severus  (Bust  of) 

"  Sermon  of  Saint  Paul  at  Athens 

Sesurtasen  (Statuette  of) 

Seti  I.  (Tomb  of) 

II.  (Statue  of)  . 

Seth  (Figure  of) 

Sethos  (Statue  of) 

Sevekhotep  (Statue  of) 

Shakespear  (Tomb  of) 

Sheemakers 

"  Shepherd  Phorbas  carrying  away  th 

Sheridan  (Tomb  of)  . 

"  Siege  of  a  Town  "  (Bas-relief) 

Siena  (Pulpits  of) 

Sigean  Inscription  (The) 

"  Silenus  with  the  young  B 

Simart  (Charles) 

Simmias  . 

Siumutf  (Head  of) 

"  Sleeping  Penelope  "  (The) 

Sluter  (Claux)  . 

Smilis  of  yEgina 

Socrates  (Statue  of)  . 

Sola  (Antonio) 

Sopers 

Sophroniscus    . 

Sphinx     . 

Spartacus  (Statue  of) 

Spenser  (Tomb  of)    , 

Spy  (The) 

Stanhope  (Tomb  of) 

"  Statuae  Iconicse"    . 

"  StelK  " 


young  Oedipus  ' 


5>  2 


PAGB 

30 
250 
250 

43 

9.  27 

192 

305 
26 
29 
27 

27,  30 
27 
26,  29 
77,  278,  280 

276,  278 

•  329 

277,  278 

56 
202 

155 
114 

333 
90 

36,  37 

331 

267 

81 

120 

247 
269 

159 

45.  53 

333 
277 

135,  136 

•  274 
\i8,  182,  187 

5.  32,  34,  35 


41, 


398 


INDEX. 


PAr.8 

Strasbourg  (Cathedral  of)  . 

. 

.      244 

Strazzi     .... 

. 

.      237 

"  Strugt,'le  between  Saint  Gee 

rge  and  the 

Dragon 

J3 

.      290 

"  Suovetaurilia  "  (Bas-relief) 

. 

•      194 

Susannah  (History  of,  Bas-reliefs) 

•      269 

Synnoos  .... 

•          . 

.        81 

Tablets  (Assyrian)  . 

S3. 

54,  57,  59 

Taho  (Sarcophagus  of) 

. 

•       35 

Tapheru  (Figure  of) 

• 

•       29 

Taur  (Figure  of) 

• 

30,  38 

Tauriscus 

. 

•     147 

Telecles  .... 

, 

74 

Terpsichore  (Statue  of) 

• 

•     255 

Teti  (Statue  of) 

, 

.       28 

Texier  (Jean)    . 

. 

.     291 

Thalia  (Statue  of)     . 

• 

.     121 

Thebes  (Sepulchres  of) 

• 

",  36 

Theocles .... 

. 

.       78 

Theodorus 

74, 

75,  76,  78 

"  Theseus  killing  the  Centaur 

Eurytion  " 

. 

•     234 

conqueror  of  the  Minotaur  . 

233 

234,  235 

Thevenin  de  Saint  Leguier  (Tomb  of) 

. 

.     290 

Thierry  (Jean)  , 

. 

• 

.     321 

Thomas   .... 

•          • 

, 

•     334 

Thompson  (Tomb  of) 

.          • 

• 

•     277 

Thorwaldsen  (Albert  Bartholomew)      . 

'  2,2,1 

=37, 

261 

262,  263 

Thoth  (Figure  of)     . 

. 

•       30 

"  Tiber  "  (The) 

• 

•     113 

Tiberius  (Statue  of )  . 

• 

.     188 

TimosithnK  (Statue  of) 

, 

•       79 

Timotheus 

, 

.     152 

Tiridates. 

, 

.     191 

"  Titan  struck  by  thunder  " 

, 

.     322 

Titus  (Statue  of) 

. 

.     190 

Tomb  by  Puget 

. 

•     315 

"  Toro  Farnese  "  (The) 

146, 

149 

i8i,  314 

Torregiano 

224,  239, 

240, 

273,  280 

Torso  (The  Belvedere) 

• 

• 

143, 17'; 

INDEX. 


"  Transfiguration  of  our  Saviour  " 
Trebatti  (Paul  Ponce) 
Tremouille  (Charlotte,  Tomb  of) 
"Tritons" 

"Triumphant  Rome" 
"  Triumph  of  Maximilian  II." 
"Truth"  (Statue  of) 
Turenne  (Tomb  of)  . 

Un-Nefru  (Statue  of) 
"Union"  (Statue  of) 
Urania  (Statue  of)     . 
Urban  VIII.  (Tomb  of) 
"  Ulysses  bending  his  Bow  " 


Van  Bogaert  (Martin) 
Vase  (The  Grecian) 

with  three  Graces 

Vases  (by  Cellini) 

• (Etruscan) 

Vela 

Venus  of  Amathus 

Anadyomenes 

at  the  Bath 

Callipygos 

of  Capua . 

(The  Chaste) 

(A  Draped) 

Euplcea    . 

Genetrix  . 

of  Knidus 

leaving  the  Bath 


a  Libertin 

of  Medici 

■ of  Melos  . 

of  Praxiteles 

of  Troas  . 

Victrix     . 

Venuses  (Two  Marine) 


93^ 


93. 
94,  95 


128, 
97, 


PACK 

.  241 

305,  306 

.  308 

.  298 

.  186 

•  251 

308,  331 

.  227 

.  28 

.  308 

.  112 

.  227 

.  322 

.  32t 

.    61 

303,  304 
.   226 

64,  65 

.   237 

.   97 
122 

•  325 
.  144 
.  144 
.  148 
.  105 
.  105 
.  105 

80,  97,  105,  324 
136,  138 

•  los 
129,  130,  140,  145 
loi,  104,  129,  140 

.  130 

.  105 

92,  104,  105 

.  105 


400 


INDEX. 


Verrocchio  (Andrea). 

.    206 

Vesta 

•    332 

"  Vetri  Antichi "       .          .          .          . 

.       68 

"  Victories  "  (Six  marble)  . 

.     257 

Victory  (A,  by  M.  Angelo) 

.     218 

"Victory"  (A  Winged)      . 

•        7S>  173 

Victorious  Alexander  (Statue  of) 

•     314 

Vigarni  (Filippo) 

•     239 

Vinache  (Joseph) 

•     322 

Vine  (Tlie  Golden,  of  Sardis) 

•       75 

"Virgin  adoring  the  Infant  Saviour" 

•     205 

• (Bust  of  the)      . 

•     329 

holding  the  Holy  Child  "    . 

.     246 

nursing  the  Infant  Jesus  "   . 

.     214 

Vischer  (Peter) 

.     250 

Visitation  (The,  bas-relief) 

.     291 

Voltaire  (Bust  of )      . 

.     328 

• (Statue  of )        .          .          . 

.     325 

Vulcan  (Statue  of )    . 

•     294 

"War" 

.     330 

Warren  (Eliz.  Tomb  of )    . 

.     280 

Washington  (Statue  of )       .          . 

.     328 

Watt  (Statue  of) 

.     280 

(Tomb  of ) 

•     275 

Wellington  (Equestrian  Statue  of) 

.    272 

■ (Statue  of )         .          .          . 

.     272 

Westmacott  (Sir  Richard)  . 

.     270,  271 

Wiener              .... 

.     269 

Wilberforce  (Tomb  of )       . 

.    275 

Wilkie  (Statue  of )     , 

.     271 

William  III.  (Tomb  of )     . 

•     273 

Wolf  (The  Etruscan) 

.     186 

Wolfe  (General,  Tomb  of) 

,     274 

"  Wrestlers  "  (The)  . 

lOI, 

133.  134,  141,  229,  235 

Wyatt  (Tomb  of )       . 

.            .            .             .       27f 

Xanthus  (Monument  of )  . 

.     150, 151 

YoRCK  (Statue  of )   . 

» 

.     257 

INDEX. 


401 


"  Young  Fisher  dancing  the  Tarantella  " 

playing  with  a  Tortoise  "    . 

"  Young  Girl  frightened  by  a  Snake  " 

with  the  Stag 

"  Young  Hunter  playing  with  his  Dog  " 
wounded  by  a  Snake 


'  Young  Neapolitan  Dancer  " 


"  Zephyrus  carrying  off  the  Sleeping  Psyche  " 
Zeuxis     ....... 

"Zodiac  of  Denderah"  (The)    . 


PAG  a 

332 
332 
323 
331 
332 
331 

256 

ii8 

39.  40 


INDEX   TO    AMERICAN    SCULPTURE. 


"  Adams,  John  "  (by  Binon) 
Akers  (Paul) 


Ball  (Thomas) 

Bartholomew  (Edward  Sheffield) 

"  Beethoven  " 

Binney  Monument 

Binon     .... 

"  Bird,  Shippen  "  . 

Brown  (Henry  Kirke)    . 


Capellano  (A.) 

Causici  (Enrico)    . 

Ceracchi  (Giuseppe) 

"  Chanting  Cherub  "  (The) 

"  Cleopatra  " 

Clevenger  (Shobal  Vail) 

Crawford  (Thomas) 

Dexter  (Henry) 
Dixey  (John) 


•  370 

•  375 

•  354 
362,  363 
344,  353 

•  360 
357,  358,  359,  360,  361,  362,  372 


345 
375 


•  343 

•  343 
•  340,  34  r 

348,  349,  350 

•  369 

•  375 
352,  353,  354,  355,  356 

.  363,  363,  364 
.  340 


402 


INDEX. 


"  Everett,  Edward  " 
"  Eve  " 

Frazee  (John) 

Gevelot  (N.) 
"Good  Samaritan"  (The) 
"  Greek  Slave  "     . 
"Greene"  (General) 
Greenough  (Horatio) 

Hart  (Joel  T.) 
Houdon 

"  Indian  Chief"  . 
"  Indian  Girl  "  , 
"Indian  Hunter" 

"  Liberty  "     . 

"  Libyan  Sibyl  "    , 

"  Orpheus  "  . 

Palmer  (Erastus  D.) 
Powers  (Hiram)    . 
"  Proserpine  " 

"Rescue"  (The) 
Rogers  (John) 
Rogers  (Randolph) 
Rush  (William)     . 

"^  Sappho  "    . 

"  Shakespeare  "     . 

Story  (William  Wetmore) 

Thompson  (Launt) 
"Trapper"  (The) 


PAGE 

•  375 
343.  344,  345 

•  343 

•  373 
351.  352,  367 

.        .     361 

345.  346,  347,  34S,  349.  SS"^.  359 


352 
339 

354 

372 

355 
369 

353 

365,  366,  367 

345.  350,  351,  352 

352 

348 

374,  375 

356 

340 

369 
373 
346,  367,  368,  369,  370 

374 
374 


INDEX. 


403 


Ward  (John  Quincy  Adams) 

"Washington"  (by  Ball) 

"  Washington"  (by  Crawford) 

"  Washington  "  (by  H.  K.  Brown) 

"Washington"  (by  Ceracchi) 

"  Washington  "  (by  Greenough)    . 

"  Washington  "  (by  Houdon) 

"  White  Captive  "... 

Wright  (Mrs.  Patience) 


PAGE 

370,  371,  372,  373 

•  370 

•  354 

•  357 

•  342 
346,  347>  348 

•  339 
.     366,  367 

.     337,  338 


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CRITICAL  NOTICES. 

OF    THE 

Library  of  Travel 


"  It  is  evidently  the  aim  of  this  '  Library  of  Travel,  Exploration  and  Adventure '  to 
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I'ay  and  in  a  series  of  volumes  each  of  which  shall  be  complete  in  iLself,  the  results  of  indi- 
vidual exploration,  and  thus  to  present  a  panorama  of  the  different  countries  of  our  globe. 
I'he  idea  which  is  certainly  a  happy  one,  is  sure  of  being  carried  out  in  a  thorough  and  com- 
letent  manner  by  the  veteran  traveller  and  skilled  writer,  Mr.  Bayard  Taylor,  to  whom 
he  editorship  of  the  series  has  very  wisely  been  intrusted." — N'.  } '.  limes. 

"Will  hnd  favor  with  the  public."—^.  F.  Herald, 

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nd  girls  have  read  with  delight." — Churchman  ( tiartford.) 

"We  congratulate  the  publishers  and  the  public  upon  the  successful  inauguration  of 
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\'e'aj  York  Christian  Advocate. 

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V'.  y.  Ckurcli  Journal. 

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ARABIA. 


TRA  VELS  IN  ARABIA.    Compiled  and  arranged  by  Bayard  Taylor. 
I  vol.  l2mo.,  18  full-page  Illustrations  and  a  Map,  $1.50. 


In  this  volume  Mr.  "Taylor  condenses  the  accounts  of  Niebuhr,  Burchardt, 
Burton,  and  Palgravc,  and  by  way  of  illustration,  presents  us  with  pictures 
obtained  with  difficulty  from  various  sources,  Mr.  R.  S.  GitTord  furnishing  some 
character  sketches  from  his  own  portfolio.  Nowhere  else  can  be  found  so  com- 
prehensive yet  compendious  description  of  this  interesting  count. y. 

J^or  Specimen  Illustration  see  page  12. 

CRITICAL   NOTICES. 

"  It  gives  a  very  full  and  interesting  account  of  a  country  about  which  comparatively  little 
has  been  written,  but  which  contains  much  that  is  of  absorbing  interest.  Bible  students 
are  especially  interested  in  a  region  so  mtimately  as.sociated  with  Bible  times.  A  fine  map 
and  many  illustrations  complete  the  value  of  the  work  which  should  be  introduced  into  our 
Sunday  school  libraries." — 5".  S.  Times. 

"  This  third  volume,  '  Arabia,'  is  full  of  interesting  information  in  regard  to  the  char- 
acter of  a  people  and  country,  about  which  our  knowledge  is  comparatively  small." —  IVatch- 
tnan  and  Reflector. 


SOUTH  AFRICA. 

TRA  VELS  IN  SOUTH  AFRICA.    Compiled  and  arranged  by  Bayard 
Taylor.    1  vol.  12  mo.,  with  a  Map  and  Illustrations,  $1.50. 

[JVill  be  ready  in  Scpumber.'^ 


Dr.  Livingstone's  repeated  and  persevering  efforts  to  explore  Southern  Africa 
have  developed  an  extraordinary  curiosity  regarding  this  region  Special  promi- 
nence is  deservedly  given  in  this  volume  to  Dr.  Livingstone's  journeys,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  travels  of  Moffat,  the  missionary,  and  of  the  Hungarian  e.xplorer, 
Magyar,  are  duly  described.  No  where  else  can  there  be  found  a  condensed  and 
connected  account  of  Livingstone's  journeys  and  of  their  relation  to  those  of 
other  explorers  in  this  region. 

For  Specimen  Illustration  see  page  13. 

'  ^  —  -^  I.M  «•   M  <r  Ml 


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